Introduction
Thank you for reading the Lectionary in Solentiname. If this is your first time here, welcome! Here’s some background on this newsletter. Ernesto Cardenal was a Nicaraguan priest, poet, politician, and liberation theologian. One of his projects was to collaboratively read the gospels with the campesinos of Nicaragua. If the Jesus ministered, taught, healed, and living among the poor people of first century Judea, then perhaps the least of these today can help us better understand Jesus’s message. We participate in this by reading The Gospel in Solentiname, Cardenal’s collection of their discussions. If you would like to learn more about the context of these conversations, there’s nothing better than reading Cardenal’s introduction to the book here.
Last week, we read about the servant who wouldn’t forgive. You can read that here. This week, following the Revised Common Lectionary, we are reading about the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
Lectionary Reading
Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around, and he 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.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received a denarius. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Solentiname Reading
The owner of a vineyard made a contract with some workers in the morning for a denarius. Then he went out at different hours of the day to hire more workers telling them that he would pay them whatever was fair. At the end of the day he paid each of them a denarius. Those who started working first were angry.
But the owner answered one of them: “My friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go away. I want to give the last worker as much as you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my money? Or are you annoyed because I am generous?”
I: “You who work in the fields, let's see what you think of this parable.”
“It seems to me that boss was unfair when he paid them all the same. It's true that he didn't break his agreement. But if he paid, let's say, ten pesos to the ones who didn't work much, he ought to have given extra to the ones who did more work.”
“If it was a question of money it would be an injustice, because all the wages he was giving were unfair. He was robbing all of them, because he should have given them the profits, not just the wages. He says he has the right to do what he wants with his money, and that's false, because that money didn't belong to him, it belonged to the workers. But what we're discussing here isn't workers and bosses but the kingdom of God. The vineyard is love. And Jesus says that, with respect to love, the same thing happens as with a boss who pays equally. That love, God isn't stealing it from anybody, while you could say that the vineyard was stolen. In love it doesn't matter what hour you begin to work, or who produces most, so to speak.”
OSCAR: “I don't think the boss was unfair, because he didn't care about the work, or the profits it would bring. What he wanted was for everybody to be working. The ones who began at six earned what was coming to them; the one who began at two worked only one hour, if they stopped at three, but that had nothing to do with those who started at six. The ones who worked more were angry, of course. I can understand them, but they had no right to complain. The boss wanted to get them all together so that none would be idle.”
MANUEL: “It wasn't unjust. Because, hell, it's like if a boss says to me: ‘Come and work,’ and afterwards he sees Felipe and he says to him: ‘You come, too,’ and Felipe says: ‘No, it's too late and I'm going to be earning very little.’ And he says to him: ‘No, man, why, I'm going to pay you well.’ And he goes. He's not taking anything from me, it's a favor that he's doing him.”
OLIVIA: “What I see is that the opposite happens there from what happens in real life: that the one that works most earns most. It seems that in that parable Jesus is telling us that in the new society everybody's going to get the same amount.”
WILLIAM: “Not according to the work but according to the need.”
FELIPE: “Here he's saying that the kingdom of heaven is like a great farm, but a farm on which everybody earns the same so nobody will feel he's more than anybody else; people aren't separated by wages.”
BOSCO: “And it seems to me that when you make a revolution, the first ones that work in it shouldn't demand more than the others who join it at the end. Because the revolution is equality. It makes everybody the same.”
ESPERANZA, his wife: “And that also means that it's never too late to work in the revolution, right?”
LAUREANO: “Then nobody'll get paid for what they know or what they do, except according to their needs. And everybody has almost the same needs; they have to earn the same.”
I: “In the vineyard they've been working for some time, and Jesus tells this parable to the Jews, the ones who went to work first. With Israel began the history of the liberation of humanity. And the Jews believed they were going to have very special privileges in this kingdom. The fathers of the church have said the Christians were the workers that came afterwards and they were going to receive an equal reward; but Jesus speaks of different hours, and we may believe he also refers to others who came later, at the end, the atheists. There's no difference among the ones who enter at various epochs of history to work for the kingdom. Even though the first ones, says Jesus, are going to be unhappy.”
FELIPE: “I see too, Ernesto, that the first ones were promised a denarius. The others were told only that they were going to get a fair wage. So they went to work without expecting the denarius, without knowing if it would be fifty cents (half a denarius) or whatever. So the ones who began to work first for the kingdom, those Jews, were holding to the religious promises that God had given them. There are others who've come later to work without thinking of those promises, thinking they're going to be given just what's fair. But in the end they're all going to receive the same reward of eternal life. But it seems that the first ones complain if these other ones receive the same reward.”
So, then, the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.
OLIVIA: “There's a pride among religious people, who think they're the ones that are going to transform the world, the ones that are going to bring to earth this kingdom of heaven; and the Marxists, who don't believe in God, work harder for this kingdom than religious people, without expecting any reward. And Jesus here takes the part of the last ones more than the first ones.”
Because many are called, but few are chosen.
OLIVIA: “Lots of people would like to mail money to God in heaven, people who give alms in the temple like people buying insurance, without worrying about whether there's vaccines or medicines or if the people have enough to eat. And there are people who are going to die, who'll never have power, never get a job, they're just going to die; but they know they're going to free a lot of suffering people; and they're up in the mountains without anything; maybe they can't even read, and they're there like Christ suffering for the liberation of their country and of many countries, like Che who liberated one country and went to die in another. And this is what seems to me real Christianity, and those are the ones that Christ says are the chosen ones.”
I said that in Aramaic “many” and “all” are the same, and when Christ says “many” he means “all.” He's telling the Jews that all are called but few of them will be chosen. And here there are three judgments that Jesus makes of those religious people, each one stronger than the preceding one, and more radical. They perhaps were said on different occasions but the Evangelist has grouped them into a single text: first he tells them that those who are the last to work will receive the same as they do; then he tells them that the last ones will be ahead of them; then he tells them that few of them will be chosen.
“Is there anything more to add?”
“It's all very clear.”
Next Week
If you enjoyed reading this, I have a question for you. For almost the entirety of next month, there are no parallels between the lectionary and the Gospel in Solentiname. I’m at a loss as to what I should do. If you have any thoughts, please chime in. Otherwise, I may just go dark for a while.
What was the most interesting part of this week’s discussion? Let me know your opinions in the comments. Thanks for subscribing and sharing. I’ll see you next week.