Who is my Bhai?

Deacon Ned Berghausen
St. Agnes Catholic Church
September 23/24, 2023
25rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090422.cfm

Good evening / morning St. Agnes and guests. Thank you for joining us for this mass celebrating the Season of Creation. This liturgical period, which runs from September 1st to October 4th, is a time in which we are called to “renew our relationship with the Creator and with creation, through celebration, conversion and commitment.” Whoever wrote that description really likes the letter ‘C.’

Today’s parable could well be Americans’ least favorite of all time. The vineyard owner in this story pays workers the same wage, regardless of how long each worked or how hard. For many, this offends our cherished principle that hard work should be rewarded amply. We might well agree with the worker who grumbles, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”

Yet, Jesus’ challenging parable is meant to introduce us to God’s alternative vision of justice. It is a vision that dares us to reimagine our own place in a justice that includes the poorest members of our world, and the created world that we live in. I want to share an experience of mine that connects to today’s parable.

I’ve mentioned in homilies before that I was a Peace Corps Volunteer for two and half years when I was in my 20s. In Bangladesh, the country where I served, the main form of transportation is bicycle rickshaw. You may know them as pedicabs—they are used by tourists in downtown parts of American cities where they are called pedicabs, looking like big tricycles. There’s a cab in the back for passengers and a standard bike up front where the wallah or puller pedals. In Bangladesh, there are millions of poor men employed in pulling the machines.

Near the apartment where I lived, there was a crossroads where a group of these rickshaw pullers hung out all day waiting for fares. Most worked seven days a week, for an average of nine hours a day. A typical fare for a 15-minute ride could be around 60 US cents, but this was entirely negotiable. There was no meter running. No Uber-like app where the price was set in advance. It was a simple matter for passengers to cheat or exploit these laborers. The pullers needed to rent their rickshaws for about $1 a day from fleet owners. This was another transaction ripe for abuse. These laborers ranged in age from 20 to 60 years old. The younger, healthier guys might expect to get chosen more frequently for rides. The older and more infirm pullers sometimes resorted to begging for themselves and their families if they didn’t get enough work. Can you see parallels with Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard today? The master of the vineyard opted to pay a living wage to the older and infirm workers in this story, one sufficient to feed him and his family for another day.

This aroused the greed of the workers who labored all day. They felt they deserved, they earned even more than what they needed to support themselves and their family. They felt a deep resentment towards the other workers, who the spokesman says, “you have made … equal to us.”

In the grumbling workers, we can detect a desire to take more than they need. A greed to get a greater share of money, resources, and status. There is a famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi that the “Earth provides enough to satisfy every [one’s] need but not for every [one’s] greed[1].”

The reality is that almost everyone on our planet, including the Bangladeshis I know, would like to live the American lifestyle: The trouble is, as Gandhi suggested, the world cannot sustain it. If everyone lived this way, we would require 5.1 Earths, according to one estimate. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live well, be comfortable, and give the best to our children. Yet tension because our lifestyles are damaging the world we want to leave to our children. There is enough on this good earth for all human beings, indeed, for all life to live sustainably with their needs met.

One thing I appreciated in Bangladesh was that people would always call me, “Bhai” or “Bhaiya,” which means brother. There is a sense in that culture that every person is part of one’s extended family. A recognition that cuts against the grumblers accusation in the parable – you see we were already equal. Already brothers. It reminds me of St. Francis who felt this same kinship with nature – with Brother Wolf, Sister Water, and our Sister, Mother Earth. [God is praised through all his creatures]. It is hard not to care about someone when they are part of your family. St. Francis and Pope Francis call on us to see creation with that same vision.

Pope Francis, in his 2015 encyclical letter, Laudato Si’, urged us “to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (LS 49). He wrote that these two cries are inextricably linked. I think again of our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh who contribute very little to the pollution and changes in our climate. Despite their limited responsibility, however, Bangladeshis are experiencing some of the worst effects. It is a country that frequently suffers from flooding and severe storms. Because it lies near sea level, its people are also among the most vulnerable should the ocean waters rise.

We are now seeing different but related environmental effects in our own community like wildfire smoke, increasingly severe storms, and record breaking heat on summer days.

The pope has issued a challenge for every Catholic institution: dioceses, schools, universities, hospitals, and even Catholic families to create a plan for how we will take action to respond to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. We have a responsibility both individually and collectively to take up this call to action. God bless you, God bless creation, and all the people of this good earth.

---

[1] Quoted by Pyarelal Nayyar in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (Volume 10), page 552 (1958)