Gospel Reading Today, August 20

Liturgical Day: Wednesday August 20
Gospel (Mt 20, 1-16): At that time Jesus said to the disciples this parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. It having been agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Then he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the square, they said, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.' And they were. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same. Still came out at about the eleventh hour, to find others who were there, they said, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?'. They told 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 foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last unto the first.' They came, those in the eleventh hour and received one denarius each. When the first came, they thought they would receive more, but they too received one denarius each. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and hast made them equal to us who have borne the burden and heat of the day'. But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong. Do not you agree with me for a penny? Take what is yours and go. For my part, I want to give to this last the same as you. Is that I can do with mine what I want? Or are you going to be envious because I am generous? '. So the last shall be first and the first last. "

   Your brother in Christ, Father Santiago