Así como algunos obreros de esta parábola permanecieron en la plaza hasta muy avanzada la tarde, hay muchos que antes de ser llamados viven según el espíritu del mundo, sometidos a las pasiones desordenadas, la avaricia, la lujuria, la soberbia; perezosos para las cosas de Dios aunque activos para las de este mundo.
Sin embargo no debemos perder la esperanza, aunque hayan pasado muchos años de alejamiento, porque lo importante no es la edad en que nos entregamos a Dios sino la intensidad del amor puesta en el trabajo realizado y la confianza en el Señor que nos llama y que igualará a los últimos con los primeros en el salario común.
Trabajadores de la última hora han sido la Magdalena que de meretriz pasó a limpiar los pies del Señor, aquel ladrón que se robó el paraíso al lado de la Cruz, y el Apóstol San Pablo que de enemigo que era se volvió propagador del Evangelio. "Dios corona sus dones, no tus méritos", dice San Agustín ; no es la vida eterna el salario de las obras que hacemos a partir de nosotros sino las que hacemos por la gracia de Dios.
El hecho de que a cada uno se le dé un denario, no significa que en el Cielo no haya diversos grados de Gloria, de modo que el mismo bien, la visión Beatífica, embriague a cada uno de manera diferente. Por eso, pidamos al Señor que nos haga cumplir cuanto antes el plan que Dios ha soñado al llamarnos, redimiendo el tiempo, como decía San Pablo, con una entrega generosa.
In the time of Christ, a denarius was a laborer's wage—an amount sufficient to cover his family's daily needs. This wage—promised by God the Father to the workers called to His vineyard (the Church, spanning from righteous Abel to the Parousia) and later paid in a manner that human justice might deem "unfair"—is nothing less than Eternal Life. The workday can thus be interpreted as the life of the person whom the Lord calls—whether in childhood, youth, maturity, old age, or even at the very moment of death.
Just as some workers in this parable remained in the marketplace until late in the afternoon, there are many who, before being called, live according to the spirit of the world—subject to disordered passions, greed, lust, and pride; slothful regarding the things of God, yet active in the affairs of this world.
Yet we must not lose hope, even after years of estrangement; for what matters is not the age at which we surrender ourselves to God, but the intensity of love poured into the work we do, and our trust in the Lord who calls us—He who will make the last equal to the first in the shared wage.
Among these "last-hour" workers were Mary Magdalene, who went from being a harlot to washing the Lord's feet; the thief who stole Paradise while beside the Cross; and the Apostle Paul, who transformed from an enemy into a proclaimer of the Gospel. "God crowns His own gifts, not your merits", says Saint Augustine; eternal life is not the wage for works we perform on our own, but for those we accomplish through the grace of God.
The fact that each receives a denarius does not mean there are no varying degrees of glory in Heaven; rather, that same good—the Beatific Vision—fills each person with bliss in a unique way. Therefore, let us ask the Lord to enable us to fulfill, as soon as possible, the plan God envisioned when He called us—redeeming the time, as Saint Paul said, through a generous self-giving.
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