27th Sunday - To bear good fruit

 

". . . what it yielded was wild grapes"

Matthew 21: 33-43

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100823.cfm

I think most of us will easily call to mind the successes we’ve had in life but will either deny or much rather forget the failures or the past painful memories.  Maybe you worked hard, studied hard, really prepared well on a project or an assignment only to find out that it didn’t quite meet the level you were hoping.  Maybe there was a relationship you were hoping would go better than it did, and the sadness of failure took some time to get over.

I’ve had successes in my priesthood for which I am grateful and I’m glad to share those, but I really would rather not bring up the failures or the disappointing memories. Maybe it’s our ego or own sense of self-importance or it could be a lack of appreciation for what we have rather than what we don’t. Sometimes, we’re just sour grapes.

In light of today’s readings, both the first from Isaiah and the Gospel parable of Jesus about the wicked tenants in the vineyard I think we find some of this.  They provide us a moment to remind ourselves about what we have, and the richness or “fruits” God is expecting us to produce as we follow his will and maybe our failures can turn out to be successes in the end.

Both Isaiah and Jesus’ parable from Matthew speak of a vineyard.  In fact, the Gospel has Jesus making comment on the specific passage we hear today from Isaiah.  Yet, the images are tough.  They begin with a vineyard owner who very lovingly prepared his vineyard: on a fertile hillside, spaded it, cleared the ground of stones, planted the finest vines he could find and then built a watchtower in the vineyard to guard it carefully.

But those best laid plans went sour.  He went to harvest the fresh, juicy grapes and found they were wild and tasteless.  He is angry and disappointed, so he abandons it to become a ruin filled with thorns and briers.  How sad.  Such care and love had been given to it in the beginning but for some reason it was wasted.

 More specifically, Isaiah clearly states that the vineyard is a sign of the “house of Israel” and that God, who tended his “vineyard” with tenderness and love, has found only rejection and carelessness.  But let’s be careful here.  Does this mean that God has rejected his chosen people? The audience Jesus’ addressed were the religious leaders of the people who had turned from the covenant and led the people astray.

This is where Jesus fleshes out further commentary in the Gospel.  Tenants in the vineyard had squandered its riches on their own selfish pursuits.  Any servants sent to the vineyard were welcomed with a violent end (Prophets) and even the son of the landowner was killed there (Jesus).  It’s a tough story for sure.  The vineyard taken away may identify the rejection of Jesus by the Jewish leaders and God who then handed over the care of the new vineyard, the Church, to the mix of Jews and Gentile community. The point is more about us because in similar vein we see the Church as the vineyard of the Lord as well. 

So, if we see this for what it is meant it challenges all of us who have been given all as gift from God.  Our task, by reason of our Baptism, is to take care of that vineyard in which we live: the vineyard of our faith community and the values by which we live here and, in this world, as missionary disciples of the Lord.  Although the parable seems a harsh lesson in rejection it is filled with disappointment and frustration due to its’ lack of good produce.

This parable, and a reminder to us, is more about the kind of fruit that is produced. How do we deal with what has been given us? How open are we to the message of the Gospel? Is our life producing virtue or apathy towards our faith? Do we truly embrace the sometimes-challenging morality Jesus calls us to live especially as we find ourselves in a counter cultural and dismissive society as we have today?

That my life is guided by knowing that I’ve been placed in the Lord’s vineyard with many gifts and opportunities given from him that are not meant for me alone but meant to be shared for the good of all.  In other words, to take care of one another, to nurture our faith in the Lord, and to guard God’s creation around me for example and not exploit it for my own selfish pursuits.

It’s a very Catholic perspective to say, “all is gift.” God has prepared the vineyard of our lives, gifted us with certain advantages, and shared with us the richness of our faith and it’s spiritual treasures. All is gift and we tend the vineyard to produce richness for the time we have been given.  

Because our culture today is becoming more critical of who we are as Christians and Catholics and of how we more and more challenge the status quo of what is considered acceptable in society it is becoming all the more important for us to tend our vineyards with care and not let it simply turn to sour grapes through our neglect.

Our second reading from Philippians drives this home beautifully for us.  After a poetic reflection on truth, honor, justice, and beauty, Paul writes: “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.  Then the God of peace will be with you.”

 As we gather at the Eucharist each Sunday, we see this played out as well.  The very word “Eucharist” means to give thanks to God.  We gather not to decide what’s in this for me but more to recognize our unity in the Lord and our care for one another in Christ and to give thanks to God for all he has done. Baptized into Christ we have been placed in the vineyard of the Lord.

Take care to tend it carefully.

 

 

Almighty ever-living God

who in the abundance of your kindness

surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you

pour out your mercy upon us

to pardon what conscience dreads

and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.

(Collect of Mass)