In the marketplace in Palestine, at the time of Jesus, you could buy the necessities of life, of food and clothing. You could also buy labor. Most market places had an area where day laborers would gather. They would gather early in the morning. The work day was from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The day laborers were paid generally a denarius, which is one day's work and it was enough to feed the family and just keep them going with not a whole lot extra. William Barkley, the scriptural scholar, says that in many ways slaves had it better than day laborers did because at least they knew where their next meal was coming from.

In any case, with that background, the story today lets you notice some of these details in the Gospel. The vineyard owner goes out at 6:00 a.m. and he makes a contract with the ones he hires first. No doubt, he hired the strongest and best workers. Obviously, he had a choice but he didn't make a contract with the others. He told them he would give them what was just. So he goes out later at 9 a.m. and at noon and at 3 p.m. and as late as 5 p.m., an hour before quitting time. He hires more laborers. That's the background. I want to ask you to empathize with this story. Put yourself in the position of one of the laborers who was hired at 6 a.m., who had sweated in the hot sun all day, and you know farm work has bugs and it's nasty. You worked really hard and then as you line up to get your days wages, you notice the guy who just showed up an hour ago, had hardly even broke a sweat, missed the heat of the day, he gets the denarius. Now you're licking your chops and rubbing your hands because you are going to have a really good paycheck, payday. You know that because fairness demands that you get more because you worked harder and you're a better worker anyway than this guy who showed up at the last hour. Of course, you know what happens. You don't get more. You get the same measly amount of money you contracted for, you agreed to 12 hours before. How do you feel?

Well, if you empathize, many of us would say that it's just not fair. Just as the workers who showed up early in the story, they were annoyed or angry with the boss. You know how they felt. Right? The very fact that we know how they felt indicates that we have a problem. Because what the landowner said to them, Jesus says to us. Are you envious because I am generous? We made a deal. I kept my part of the bargain with you. I'm just more generous to him. Why does that trouble you? Can't I do with my money as I wish? Yet we still recognize, sympathize with that feeling they had. There is something in us that is petty and small. We don't like it in others. We hate it in others but we have to admit we can see it at times in ourselves and that something is one of what we call the Seven Deadly Sins, the sin of envy.

Envy. It's a nasty kind of word. We say someone is green with envy. Now we know that people come in all colors. They are all beautiful but I've never seen a green person. That would be one nasty looking human being, green with envy. A person who is envious is unhappy with others good fortune or happy with another's misfortune. Or I'm happy with something until I see someones got a better deal. I'm sitting in my coach class seat on my way to New York with my $300 round trip and I'm feeling pretty good. Find out the guy next to me got the same ticket for $200. I thought I had a good deal, why am I suddenly not happy because he got a better deal? I'm mad at the boss, Delta Airlines?

We see envy everywhere we look, if we really look. We really need to look at ourselves; we need to look inside for this sin because it is a deadly sin. It is an ugly thing. We see it in families. I mean, every family that has children, has sibling rivalry. It's a reality, isn't it? Maybe you have two perfect kids who just get along swimmingly but most people have that report. I was golfing yesterday with my sister at the Santa Fe Country Club, a parishioner and his family came up, and I said, "Well, this is my sister." I always wonder when someone sees me with someone about my age but it really was my sister. He said to her, "You must be a saint". And she said, "Yes, I am." My mom and dad only had two kids. I was the last child to be born. My mother looked at me and said, "That's it." "No more." I was the worst brat in the world. My mother made my sister responsible for me because she was two years older. She had total responsibility and absolutely no authority. Oh, I was terrible. I've been begging my dear sister's forgiveness my whole life. It is amazing I've become the saint that I have.

Children are envious of each other, naturally. I guess my point is that there is something natural in us. It's like our default mode of being, to be envious, and jealous, and petty. Again we hate that in others, but we see it in ourselves if we are honest. Mom dies and leaves $10,000 to each of the children but one of them says, "But I did all the work. I took care of her."

I really see envy with parents who are envious of other children, other parents' kids. It's so silly. You know, it is nonsense and you ask any teacher, they will tell you stories about envious parents. You know a couple of weeks ago our high school football team won a game and Zach Mang had a great game, a good athlete, had a great game and I was giving his statistics. I was chastised twice for those comments. Seriously. After Mass, I was chastised for not mentioning the offensive linemen. Now I'm not joking. This guy said, "You shouldn't be mentioning the quarterback……." What difference does it make? Get a life. You know I'm getting old enough now, you know when you call me Father, sometimes I act like your father. Since you don't pay me much, you're gonna have to deal with it.

Then I got this email that apparently represented a number of parishioners and it said "Don't ever talk about an athlete from our high school again from the pulpit. Don't ever do that. And you know football is not the only game." What was that? Why can't we say good job to some kid without hurting 42 other kids, or the track team, or the volleyball team? What difference does it make? It's not right. But I mean, it's funny. But these people were really serious. And I was really annoyed and as you can probably tell, I still am!

Jealously at work, or envy. Someone else receives the promotion. Wow, that's a very common thing. I hear your confessions, you admit that one. In Church even, if you have to be careful of honoring anyone like at Fiestas or something because somebody else will be mad because you didn't honor them. It's not right even when we are at play.

I know none of you have ever been to the casinos, but you're playing the quarter machine for an hour and you lose $50 and someone comes up next to you, puts three quarters in and hits the grand jackpot. What do you say to them, "God bless you. I am so happy for you." Oh yeah, right.

This attitude is really true in golf. I was playing golf a couple of months ago, I'm looking around here for someone I was playing with. This guy was competing with me and I wasn't competing with him. Every time I made a good shot, he got mad. Towards the end when he made a bad shot, I thought "Good. I hope it goes in the water." I was getting angry with him because he was rooting against me because he wanted to outscore me. We both stink. It's not as if this is the PGA, we are both bad golfers.

Now this is funny but isn't it true. There is a tendency for us to be envious of others and their good fortune and we have to stop that.

Isaiah tells us why. He says, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, My ways are above your ways, says the Lord." Now we are made in God's image and we're capable of acting like that. Remember one of the great lessons we learned about our people and our nation was during 9/11. We saw so many beautiful people, so many heroes, so many great, great people willing to give their lives for others. That proves to me we are made in God's image. But if we are truly made in God's image, we need to give up this envy nonsense. I love the Australian expression, "Good-on-ya, good-on-ya mate." We need to feel that way about each other. It only makes sense. First, if we are really thankful for the blessings we have, for the gifts that we have, we should be thankful also for the gifts others have because if they're our friends, they contribute to our welfare as well. We need to be like God. To the extent we carry with us in our lives any envy at all, we need to leave that here tonight because it destroys us and it's not good for us. God doesn't like it and neither do we.