Daily Gospel Reading Commentary - WTH?

My intrepid dad sent me page 3706 of the daily lectionary published by Liturgical Press in Collegeville, Minnesota.  Fasten your seat belts, and put on a helmet; there's going to be a lot of head-banging.  First, let's read the Gospel for Wednesday, August 19, 2010 (taken from drbo.org, which is the Douay-Rheims translation):

The kingdom of heaven is like to an householder, who went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle.  And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just.  And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner.  But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the labourers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first.  When therefore they were come, that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more: and they also received every man a penny.   And receiving it they murmured against the master of the house, Saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good?"What I will"... Viz., with my own, and in matters that depend on my own bounty.So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.

In a nutshell, the traditional understanding of the parable is that God is the landowner, and the first laborers hired are those who have always been faithful to Him.  The people who are called later in the day are those who received the grace of faith later in life, including the infamous deathbed conversions.  ALL who are faithful at the time of death will receive the reward of eternal life, no matter when their conversion occurred.  This famously irks some faithful people, who believe that it is only fair that they deserve more!

NOW, let's read the commentary (my emphasis in red):

The traditional surface understanding of the parable of the laborers in the vineyard sees Jesus as proclaiming that all of the disciples are equal when it comes to inheriting eternal life.  The last will receive salvation just as much as the first.  but there is a deeper and more unsettling aspect to what Jesus says here.  The clue comes from the liturgy itself and the way the first reading from Ezekiel is placed opposite the parable of the laborers in the vineyard.  God is declaring through the prophet Ezekiel that Israel's leadership has become totally bankrupt.  The shepherds are in fact feeding off the sheep that they have been appointed to care for.  They have grossly failed in every aspect of what responsible shepherding requires.  The result is that the sheep have been scattered, and chaos reigns where order ought to prevail.  The parable of the laborers in the vineyard can be read as Jesus pointing out just how corrupt the local leadership of the Roman Empire is and will continue to be if something does not change.  The story he tells is one of exploitation of day laborers.  They have to take what they can get, even if in the end the distribution of wages will be totally unfair and unjust.  This is an example of how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  The land owner is not generous.  He is an oppressor of the poor.  this is what business as usual looks like on a daily basis.  Jesus is indicating that life in the kingdom of heaven will be different, and the rule of the day will not be business as usual.

This could possibly be even worse than the "Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their inhospitality" argument.  I pray that no one heard this crap during the homily. [Clarification:  I hope that no parishioner ANYWHERE had to hear this.  My mom and dad's parish did NOT use this commentary.] And do you see that when the commentator says that "The land owner is not generous.  He is an oppressor of the poor", that's GOD he's talking about.  Just.  Wow. I wonder who this persyn voted for in the presidential election?