“He replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?’ Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.” (Matthew 20: 13 – 16)

Jesus challenges one of our deepest instincts: the belief that fairness always means everyone getting what they deserve. Jesus turns that thinking upside down. In the vineyard, the last are treated with the same generosity as the first. It is a reminder that God’s measure is not our measure.

For teachers, educators and support staff, this matters. School life can easily become about the students who achieve, participate, respond, lead and seem to have everything going for them. But the Gospel keeps drawing our attention elsewhere. Who is still waiting to be noticed? Who has stopped believing they belong? Who needs someone to see possibility in them before they can see it in themselves?

Catholic education is not simply about getting the best out of students. It is about making sure no one is left standing at the edges. Sometimes the most important thing we do in a day is not the lesson we teach, the task we complete or the problem we solve. It is the moment we notice someone, make space for them and remind them that they matter.

Jesus asks us to look again at our priorities. Not just the students who are easiest to teach. Not just the voices we hear most often. Not just the ones who arrive ready to succeed.