Homily 20 September 2026, Parish of the Annunciation, Balzan
Confirmation of 16 Adults
There is something very familiar about the Gospel we have just heard. The workers who have been in the vineyard since early morning look at those who have arrived only at the last hour, and they think: “That isn’t fair”. And if we are honest, we can understand them. We know what it is like to work hard, to give our time and energy, and then to see someone else receive the same reward with apparently much less effort. We compare; we calculate.
But, in this parable, Jesus is not speaking about industrial relations at the place of work. He is inviting us to look at our relationship with God. Because this Gospel is not really about wages. It is about grace. God’s love is not a salary. It is a gift. We cannot earn it. We cannot compete for it. We can only receive it with gratitude. God’s generosity is greater than our calculations. God does not stop looking for us; he keeps coming out into the marketplace of our lives and saying: Come. There is a place for you in my vineyard.
God calls each of us at a different moment
I think this is a particularly beautiful Gospel for all of you who are receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation today.
You have travelled very different journeys. Some of you may have grown up with faith. Others may have travelled a different road. Perhaps faith became less important as life became busy. Perhaps there were years when God was somewhere in the background. Perhaps some of you have come to this moment after a long journey of searching.
But today’s Gospel tells us something wonderfully simple: it is never too late for God to call us. Look at those workers standing in the marketplace at the end of the day. They have been there for hours. And the landowner asks them: “Why do you stand here idle all day?” (Mt 20:6) They answer: “Because no one has hired us” (Mt 20:7). And even at that late hour, he says: “You too go into my vineyard” (Mt 20:7). There is something very tender about that. God does not look at them and say: “It’s too late now”. He does not say: “You should have come earlier”. He simply says: “Come”.
Today, we need to hear that word personally. Come as you are, with your questions, with your wounds, with the things you are proud of and the things you regret, with the years that have been good and the years that have been difficult, with the faith you have, and even with the faith you sometimes struggle to have.
Not the end of the journey
And this is important for us to remember today. Confirmation is sometimes understood as the moment when we have finally “finished” our religious formation. But Confirmation is not a graduation. It is not the end of something. It is a beginning.
Today, God is not saying to you, “Well done. You have completed everything”. Rather, God is saying: “Well done. Now I am sending you”. The Holy Spirit is given to you not simply to make you feel closer to God, but to strengthen you to live your faith in the real world.
The Spirit comes into your ordinary life: into your family, your friendships, your workplace; into the decisions you make, the difficulties you carry, the people you meet every day. The Holy Spirit wants to make you more patient when patience is difficult, more forgiving when forgiveness costs something, more courageous when it would be easier to remain silent, more compassionate when someone is struggling, more faithful when life becomes confusing. That is what it means to enter the vineyard.
The vineyard is where we live
We don’t have to go somewhere extraordinary to find God’s vineyard. The vineyard is already around us. It is the home where you live, the people you work with, the neighbour who may need a kind word, the elderly person who feels forgotten, the young person who is searching for meaning, the person who has lost hope. It is even the difficult person who gets under our skin and tests our patience!
Sometimes we imagine that serving God means doing something great. But very often the Holy Spirit works through something much smaller: a listening ear, a word of encouragement, a decision to forgive, a visit, a little more patience, a little less judgement, a prayer. A willingness to say, “I am here. How can I help?” This is how Christ becomes present in the world. And today God is saying to each of our candidates: “I have a place for you in my vineyard”. Not somebody else’s place. Your place, your gifts, your experience, your personality. God can use all of that.
Don’t compare your journey with someone else’s
There is another lesson in the Gospel that is especially important for us. The workers who came early become unhappy because they start comparing themselves with those who arrived later. And comparison is dangerous. We can spend so much of our lives looking sideways that we forget to look towards God.
But God does not ask us to live somebody else’s story. He asks us to live our story with him. Your journey with God will not look exactly like mine. And mine will not look exactly like yours. Some people discover God when they are very young. Others discover him after many years. Some people return to the Church after a difficult period. Others slowly grow into a deeper faith. And some people spend years carrying questions before they finally begin to see where God is leading them.
But God is patient. He is simply waiting, calling, inviting: “Come into my vineyard”.
The Holy Spirit comes to strengthen you
In a few moments, you will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Church will pray that the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
You are receiving God’s Spirit – the same Spirit who came upon the apostles, who gave the frightened disciples courage, who helped ordinary men and women become witnesses of Christ. The Spirit who comes to you today is not given because you are perfect. He comes because God loves you and trusts you with a mission.
You may not always feel strong. You may not always know what to say. You may sometimes struggle with your faith. But the Christian life was never meant to be lived by our strength alone. That is why Jesus gives us the Spirit. You do not have to do this alone.
The grace of this moment
And today, we give thanks that God has brought you to this moment. I’m sure there were people who encouraged you along the way – parents, spouses, friends, catechists, family members, priests. There were people who prayed for you without you even knowing it. God was quietly working through many ordinary moments until, eventually, you found yourself here.
And so today, I invite you to pray: Thank you, Lord. Thank you waiting for us, for not giving up on us, for meeting us where we are, and thank you for calling us into your vineyard. Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with your gifts.
✠ Joseph Galea Curmi
Auxiliary Bishop