YOUCAT Daily

Your paths are not mine

Bible

Mt 20, 1-16a

Jesus told his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o’clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o’clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.’ When those who had started about five o’clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you.

Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.

DOCAT

What goods do people need in order to be productive?

Today the duty to make property useful and productive applies not only to land and capital but also increasingly to technical knowledge, in other words, to intellectual property. In fact, the prosperity of the industrial nations is based more and more on this kind of property, whereas the ownership of land and raw materials is becoming increasingly less important for prosperity (John Paul II, CA 32). One example is access to high-yield and special seeds, which is in danger of being controlled by large corporations. Without a universal right of access to these goods, the common good cannot be achieved. The global common good implies that a share in innovations is made possible for people in poorer nations as well.