The Lord’s Generosity

Reflection by Fr. Earl Allyson Valdez for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rembrandt, “The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard” (1637)Image from Wikipedia

Almost half a decade may have already passed, but fragmented memories of the COVID pandemic still remained with me. It was an experience so different that we had to make a lot of adjustments in our life that we still feel today. We surely would not forget the time when we had to wear face masks, fill up tracking forms, and perform tests, for it gave us the tendency to stay in our homes (or to get out of it when we find it too uncomfortable the reality of work-from-home arrangements, and the tendency to rethink what is essential. But for me, as much as for many of us, it was a reminder of plans, desires, and ambitions that were cancelled or delayed. It was also a reminder for life directions that have radically changed for better or worse, ones that we would never be able to recover. 

Perhaps the most significant mark that the pandemic left us was the sense of uncertainty. Our attempt to survive day-by-day, confined within our homes, made us really think about how the future could be really so uncertain. It is not a surprise, therefore, that today’s generation have this skepticism and confusion over the future. And usually, there are only two negative responses to it, the first one being despair, and the second being fixation on the present. Because we do not see what is ahead of us, we tend to close in on our present condition, seemingly stuck with the things that do not go in our favor. 

Painting by Emily Jiang, as part of the Fingerprint Paintings of the UCLA 3 Wishes ProgramPhoto from UCLA Health

This is even harder to swallow especially when we see others who were devastated by the pandemic and by all the other events that followed and shook our lives, the effects of which we still feel until now. In this regard, then, can we still see the hand of God at work in our lives?

It is within this frame of reality to which, surprisingly, the gospel reading for today responds, and it carries with it a startling tone: Are you envious because I am generous? There may be feelings of regret and frustration over the things that didn’t happen and the expectations that did not get fulfilled. Had they been granted, then perhaps we could be more hopeful for the future since we already have something that we can take hold of. And yet, in the midst of what is at present, the Lord invites us to recall his generosity. 

The other two readings remind us of the form of this generosity: one that is willing to follow us from the highest to the lowest points in our lives. It is a generosity that is willing to give us not what we want, but what we need. It is a generosity that transforms us slowly and leads us gradually to the Lord, to His dreams and not merely ours, to His desires for us and not merely ours. It is a generosity that is more than what we expect. 

Visitors attend the Gerhard Richter’s Retrospective, France, 2025

Photo and caption from Daily Sabah

Therefore, in the midst of all the uncertainties in life that push against us and force us to curl on our backs in fear and hesitation, and in the midst of all things that have yet to come, the Lord comes and tells us to not doubt his generosity. He calls us to a greater trust in what He has to grant us, not according to what we want, and definitely not because we deserve it. It would need prayer and discernment to discover grace, receive it, and subsequently claim it in order for us to be transformed by it. 

Going back to my experience of the pandemic, I admit that I still look at some parts of it with regret, but I am thankful that they were also opportunities to have a wider view of reality. It enabled me to see that I need not hurry for the Lord since everything happens according to His time and not mine. It enabled me to make use of that time and space to think more and be more aware of the life that I live. In the end, nothing was wasted, and everything went according to what He planned. 

We therefore begin this week asking for the grace of sight and the grace of acceptance, that we may be able to see the Lord’s generosity at work in our lives, which has something more that is in store for us.