Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Two developments of universal significance took place this past week in the Catholic Church. First, a Synod with cardinals, bishops, and for the first time, lay people including women with voting privileges, opened in Rome. The Synod is still in progress. Second, Pope Francis published his latest encyclical, Laudato Deum, a sequel to his encyclical on the Creation, Laudato Si. Both these developments can be integrally connected to today’s scripture readings that have “the vineyard” as their primary theme.
In my three points today, I would like to offer a reflection on the vineyard and draw some practical implications.
The Vineyard
When Jesus used the imagery of a vineyard in today’s parable, he was invoking a common Old Testament theme. How do we understand the vineyard? Isaiah says in today’s first reading, “The vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel” (Is 7:9).
Today, we can understand the vineyard in whatever way we want. In one sense, the vineyard is the Church and the people of God. Through the Synod, for example, Pope Francis is teaching us how to care for God’s vineyard – the Church – journeying together as the hierarchy and lay people, men and women, people holding divergent views. But the vineyard is also all of creation. Through the encyclical Laudato Deum, Pope Francis is teaching us that we all have a role in caring for God’s creation. However, the vineyard could also be our lives, our families, our workplaces, and our parish community. For that matter, the vineyard can be wherever we find ourselves.
No matter how we understand the vineyard, we must remember that is it God’s vineyard. Our life, our family, our work, our church, our parish, and Creation are God’s gifts to us. Pope Francis is showing us how he cares for Creation and the Church. And we must care the vineyard God has entrusted to us.
The Vineyard has been Entrusted to Us
As we read these parables of the vineyard together, a sense of tragedy also emerges from them. Hear God’s disappointment as God says, “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” (Is 5:3-4) The tragedy is more pronounced in today’s gospel. Those who were entrusted with the vineyard became rebellious towards the owner and even killed the owner’s son. As you can probably guess, this has to do with the rejection of Jesus by God’s very people.
The bottom line is this - the power to make God’s vineyard bear good or bad fruits is in our hands. God is a good and generous God who trusts us. Our vineyard has been entrusted to us. I hope that when God looks at our lives, God does not feel disappointed like God did in today’s first reading. Whether it is our life, our home, our work, our church or our world, I hope God finds good fruit in the vineyard that God has planted. May the tragedy of today’s scripture readings not be the parable of our lives.
God has not Given Up on God’s Vineyard
I absolutely love the end of today’s parable. I am not talking about the part where Jesus says, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death…” (Mt 21:41). But the good news is that despite the failure of God’s people, God does not stop trusting others. As the parable says, “Therefore, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit" (Mt 21:43). In other words, the vineyard is still given out in pure trust to people who presumably will produce the desired fruit. There is no guarantee that the new tenants will not repeat the mistakes the earlier tenants made, yet the vineyard is still entrusted to others.
Today, our vineyard is still entrusted to us. There is no guarantee that we will not make the same mistakes that we have made in the past. All we know is that that our life ahead is still God’s gift to is. Perhaps Paul’s words in today’s scripture can provide us the inspiration to live the rest of our lives in a fruitful way. Paul says, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). May our vineyard bear fruit – whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and gracious.
As we come to celebrate this Eucharist, let us bring the vineyard of our lives, our family, our work, our Church and even Creation before God. May God bless us and our vineyard that it may bear good and abundant fruit.
- Fr. Satish Joseph