In the gospel parable, the workers protest--justifiably, it could be argued--against the owner of the vineyard for his unfairness.

This week's gospel is a tough one for many people to hear. We grow up being taught the importance of basic fairness as part of learning right from wrong. And here goes Jesus apparently being quite unfair.

Nothing makes nice Catholic Bible study groups more disgruntled than the parable of the landowner who pays everyone alike, no matter how much they worked. It’s not fair, they argue.

Many people claim to speak for God, particularly when it comes to who has the true religion and who gets to belong to it. Obviously people need to believe their religion is true and to live that faith publicly--or, as Saint Paul said to the Philippians, "magnified in my body."

God gives us everything in his power to give: Life itself, the ability to learn and grow and love, and eternal happiness in heaven.

"If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that things happen by God's Rolex not my Timex." Those words were shared at a reunion between two coworkers long after they both gave up trying to set the course of their lives on a timetable.

According to a recent survey by America Online and Salary.com, employees "waste" on average 2.09 hours per eight-hour workday.

The justice of God is above our ways. We appeal to that justice to bring us closer to God in Christ.

Are you envious because I am generous? The story of the workers in the vineyard tells of an apparently arbitrary boss and his outraged employees, who feel they have been treated unfairly by his manner of paying them.

Our sins are nothing but a grain of sand alongside the great mountain of the mercy of God.