In the Gospel of the Mass, the Lord is compared to a father who goes out at different times to hire workers to work in his vineyard: at dawn, at the hour of Terce, at the hour of Sext, at the hour of None... With the first ones—those who were hired first—the wage was set at one denarius. The others were hired for whatever was fair. At the last hour, when the workday was almost over, at the eleventh hour, the father went out again and found others who were not working, and he said to them, “How is it that you are standing here idle all day?” And they answered him, “Because no one has hired us.” And he sent them to work in his vineyard as well.
The Lord wants to teach us a fundamental lesson: there is a call from God for all men. Some receive Christ's invitation at the dawn of their lives, at a very early age, and a special divine predilection falls upon them for having been called so early. Others receive it when they have already traveled a good part of the way. And all in very different circumstances: those presented by the world in which we live. The denarius that everyone receives at the end of the day is eternal glory, participation in the very life of God, in endless happiness at the end of the day of life, and the incomparable joy, already here, of working for the Master, of spending one's life for Christ.
Working in the Lord's vineyard, at whatever age we may be, is to collaborate with Christ in the Redemption of the world:
spreading his doctrine, with or without occasion; facilitating the sacrament of Confession for others, perhaps teaching them how to examine their conscience, explaining the great benefits that derive from this sacrament; calling others to follow Christ more closely through a life of prayer; participating in catechesis or formation work; collaborating financially to create new apostolic instruments; removing someone from a situation in which they may offend God, with timely advice or fraternal correction; suggesting to a friend, with the necessary prudence and after insistently seeking guidance in prayer, the possibility of giving themselves more fully to God...
Those who feel called to work in the Lord's vineyard must, in many different ways, “participate in the divine plan of salvation. They must march toward salvation and help others to be saved. By helping others, they save themselves.”
It would not be possible to follow Christ if we did not at the same time transmit the good news of his call to all men, “for he who in this life seeks only his own interest has not entered the Lord's vineyard.” Those who work for Christ are those who “strive to win souls and hasten to bring others into the vineyard”; they hasten because the time of life is short.
HCD