“And about five o’clock, he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.” (Matthew 20:6–7). As the parable explains, this landowner hired workers for his vineyard early in the morning, and then again at nine o’clock, noon, three o’clock and at five o’clock. At the end of the day, he paid them all the same daily wage. The ones hired first were upset thinking it was unfair that those who worked just an hour were paid the same wage as they. The landowner concludes, “I choose to give this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” God, in His mercy, is generous beyond comprehension. But we tend to want more and more and easily become envious when we see others succeed or receive blessings that we do not have.The cure for envy is wholehearted generosity. Not just generosity with our money but generosity with our affections and our ability to rejoice in the blessings that others receive. These workers in the vineyard who worked all day and received the same amount as those who worked only one hour could have responded by congratulating the later workers. Instead, they grumbled and tried to interfere with the generosity of the landowner. In many ways, we are represented by those who worked only one hour and received the full wage because we could never earn the grace of salvation. The only reason we are able to receive the gift of eternal salvation and every other grace given to us by God is because God is infinitely generous. Therefore, the goodness and generosity of God must be our constant focus, and we must rejoice in that generosity when it is given to us and when it is also given to others. Blessings. Fr. Mussie