“That’s not fair!” Over my years of priesthood whenever the Gospel for today’s Mass (Mathew 20:1-16) is brought up people have said to me, “That is not fair!” In this parable Jesus speaks about a landowner who went out from dawn to five o’clock in the afternoon to hire workers for his vineyard that day. In the end he gives them all the same amount of pay. Of course those who worked all day complained: “These last ones worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and heat."

Sadly and rightfully last Monday we remembered the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 when 2,977 people were killed: 2753 in the World Trade Center, 184 in the Pentagon, and 40 in Shanksville, PA. How terrible, unjust, and unexpected that was. The sadness still lingers over our nation, especially for those who lost loved ones. No good is ever done by sacrificing and killing innocent people for any religion, movement, or convenience. As much as we abhor what happened 22 years ago, our hearts get harder and harder as more than 1,630 babies in the womb are killed each day in our nation. In 2019 the CDC recorded 629,828 abortions and in 2020 there were 620,327 recorded. That is 1,250,065 which averages out to 1,712 abortions a day, more than 71 abortions an hour each day.

Three of the most important words we can speak after saying, “I love you”, are, “I am sorry.” The next three are also so good to hear and to speak- “I forgive you.” In the Gospel for today’s Mass (Matthew 18:15-20) Jesus speaks about confronting someone who “sins” against us. It is all too easy to confront others about their faults than to listen to others speak to us about our own faults. Our goal in speaking to others about their faults and listening to others tell us our faults is to help each other find inner peace and hope.

Living in the twenty-first century we have constant and instant access to news. We can find out what is going on locally, nationally, and world wide in a matter of minutes. In the broadcast and printed news sources, most of the news is about something evil or a natural disaster.

One of the treasures we have is historical accounts of those who have gone before us. If we would only use our minds and hearts to objectively see what works and what does not work we would sincerely find the way to peace, hope, meaning, and love in our lives. Sadly we act as if what happened before cannot happen to us. But it can and does.