His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., STD
Bishop Emeritus
Diocese of Belleville
Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 20, 2026, 9:00 AM Mass
Saint Luke Parish
Life Is Worth Living
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Is life worth living? The 48,824 Americans who committed suicide last year thought life was not worth living. (Suicide is the leading cause of death for Americans under age 20.) Life seems barely worth living for the thousands suffering daily in Israel’s war with the Palestinians in Gazza, Russia’s war against Ukraine, Israel and the United States’s war with Iran, life seems barely worth living. Some people enduring extreme mental and physical illnesses wonder if their lives are worth living. People from the United States living in inhuman circumstances in far away deportation camps feel their lives are not worth living. What do you think? Is life, brief as it is, worth living?
Peter John Sheen (born May 8, 1895 –died December 9, 1979) lived his life proclaiming with confidence and enthusiasm that “Life is Worth Living!” After he took his mother’s maiden name, Fulton, and becoming a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen became a world-famous evangelist whose television program, “Life is worth living” (1952–1957) became the most popular religious program in television history. He began his programs announcing, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: Life is Worth Living” and he ended them emphatically saying, “Good night and God Love you!” He served for many years as the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. His impact was so great that when the young actor, Ramón Antonio Estévez, was looking for a stage name, he chose Martin Sheen to honor the Archbishop. To this day, his brilliant writings and videos continue to have a powerful impact on people throughout the world. Some critics argue that Archbishop Sheen in the 1950s was naïve, did not face reality, and viewed the many horrors of life through rose colored glasses.
The Catholic Church does not see it that way. On Thursday afternoon, September 24, I will concelebrate with Bishops from around the world at the Eucharist for the Beatification of The Venerable Fulton Sheen at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis. In time he may be canonized a saint, thereby continuing to announce that Life is worth living!
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This morning’s Parable of the man who pays the workers in his vineyard the same amount for different hours of work is found only in Matthew 20:1-16. The story asks is life worth living in a world where things are so unfair. The tension between our human understanding of fairness and justice and this parable of Jesus about God's generous offer of love, forgiveness, grace, mercy and Eternal Life seems to turn our ordinary understanding of life upside down.
Jesus surely knew that this parable would disturb and challenge His listeners and all of us because it seems so unfair.
A wine maker is anxious to get his grapes harvested. Perhaps he knows the weather is threatening to turn bad the next day and, if his grapes aren’t picked today, they will spoil. So, at 6:00 in the morning, he finds laborers looking for work and quickly hires them promising to pay them the going wage of one denarius (about $50.00) for a twelve-hour workday. They work from sun-up to sundown right through the heat of the day. Throughout the day at 9, noon, 3, and 5, an hour before the end of the workday, the winemaker adds more and more laborers.
Jesus deliberately changes things when he gets to the end of the story. He reverses the order and tells us that the one-hour workers are paid first. If they had been paid last, after the twelve-hour workers had already left with their hard-earned denarius, the story would not be so startling. Jesus tells us the vineyard owner did not pay those who worked the longest until they had seen him pay those who worked only one hour a denarius as if they had worked in the heat all day. The 12-hour workers probably hoped they would be paid twelve denarii for their hard day’s work. When they received only one single denarius, these exhausted workers understandably felt cheated. Was life worth living for them in a world that was so unfair? They complained, “These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and heat.” The employer replies sternly, “My friends, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree on the usual daily wage of one denarius? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give these last workers the same as I gave you? Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?”
Most of Jesus’ listeners and most of us might find this parable bewildering. We tend to agree with the tired workers who yell, “This is not fair! How could you make those who came last and worked only one hour equal to us who have worked hard all day? Life is not worth living in a world where employers pay some people more than they deserve and pay others less than they deserve.”
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
The key to understanding this thought-provoking parable is in the opening sentence, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” The parable is NOT really about fair employment practices or just wages. It is about the power of God’s love and grace in bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven and our hope of participating in it. The story compels us to turn the world as we know it upside down if we have any hope of grasping that the Kingdom of Heaven is NOT something we can work hard for or earn. It is the free gift of God’s love and mercy. This gift of Divine Love is ultimately what makes life worth living.
In the end, it is not a matter of how long and how hard we work at being a good Christian. In the end, it is a matter of how deeply and unconditionally God loves each of us and how genuinely we respond. There is no place for envy and jealousy in the Kingdom of Heaven.
If a woman lives a long and faith-filled life loving God and her neighbors in Jesus Christ. When her life in this world ends, she dies hoping to share Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven. A man lives a life of indifference to God and hatefulness of other people goes to prison for his crimes. Gradually he repents for his sins and sincerely embraces Jesus Christ, the Catholic Faith and the Sacraments on his death bed. He dies hoping to share Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven. Would we think it is unfair that God granted him the same love and mercy that He granted the woman who lived a long life of faith and service even though he only realized that life in Christ is worth living in his final hours? Should we not rejoice for both?
The point of the parable is that God offers the same love, mercy, and forgiveness to all who are open to receive them at any point in their lives.
Let us pray for the thousands who attend Archbishop Sheen’s Beatification on Thursday and for his admirers around the world that we may grasp the message of the Archbishop’s life and the message of this morning’s difficult parable. An authentic Christian Life centered on Jesus Christ and His powerful Law of Love of God and neighbors truly is worth Living!
Praised Be Jesus Christ!
Both now and forever. AMEN!