The Parable of the Workers Hired in the Vineyard, Explained by the Pope

Pope Leo XIV explained the parable of the workers hired in the vineyard during his address at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, September 20. Speaking before the Angelus, the Pope reflected on how the story illustrates God's generosity and the human tendency to resist a more loving form of justice.

The Pope noted that while the landowner in the Gospel pays the first workers exactly what they agreed upon, he also chooses to pay those hired last the same amount to demonstrate his goodness. Leo XIV said the parable reveals that God's plans are greater and more merciful than human conceptions. He encouraged people to abandon their own ways and return to a God defined by forgiveness.