Today's Gospel presents us with one of the most challenging and beautiful parables of Jesus: the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Jesus tells us about a landowner who goes out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He finds some at dawn and agrees to pay them the usual daily wage. Later, he goes out again at nine o'clock, then at noon, then at three in the afternoon, and finally at about five o'clock—only one hour before the working day ends. At the end of the day, the landowner instructs his foreman to pay everyone, beginning with those who arrived last.