Project BLACK MAMBA: XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time

Simplex Edition
'Tis the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wikipedia-link.

Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Book of Isaiah, chapter fifty-five, verses six thru nine;
Psalm One Hundred Forty-five, verses two & three, eight & nine, & seventeen & eighteen;
The Letter to the Philippians, chapter one, verses twenty(c) thru twenty-four & twenty-seven(a);
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter twenty, verses one thru sixteen.

Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, the parable that Jesus tells in today's Gospel is one of the most unnerving, disturbing and confounding of all. We know the outline of the story well: a landowner goes out to hire workers for his field, hiring some first thing in the morning and then others at different times during the day. Then, at the close of work, he pays each the same wage.

I would like to offer two reflections on this puzzling story. First, we should remember that God's ways are not our ways. Does this story represent an undermining of justice? No, rather, a showing forth of the justice that flows from God's vision of things.

Here's a second perspective: We sinners are very susceptible to a reward-centered understanding of our relationship to God. Tit for tat. I do this; then you better do that. But this is very juvenile, very primitive.

We've been invited to work in the vineyard of the Lord. That is the greatest privilege imaginable, to participate in the Lord's work. Why are we fussing about rewards? And how liberating this is! I don't have to spend my life worrying and comparing. I can live.

Video reflection by Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M.: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Mass Journal: Week 39
Reflection by Matthew Kelly, founder of the Dynamic Catholic Institute:

My favorite passage from the Catechism of the Catholic Church appears as the first line of the first chapter, & it reads, "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God & for God; & God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth & happiness he never stops searching for."

Otherwise, 24 September would be the festival of Saint Anathalon, Bishop (floruit second century, of Milan): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

'Twould also be the festival of Our Lady of Walsingham (apparitions 1061): Madonna-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Twould also be the festival of Our Lady of Ransom (apparition 1218, A.K.A. Our Lady of Mercy): Madonna-link, Wikipedia-link Ransom, & Wikipedia-link Mercy.

'Twould also be the festival of Blesseds William Spenser, Priest, & Robert Hardesty, Martyrs (died 1589), martyred in the reign of the queen Elizabeth I, two of the Eighty-five Martyrs of England & Wales: Martyr-link Whiskey Sierra & Wikipedia-link Whiskey Sierra, & Martyr-link Romeo Hotel; Martyrs-link LXXXV & Wikipedia-link LXXXV.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Pacificus of San Severino, Priest, O.F.M. (1653-1721): Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.