Matthew 21: 33-43
The Word:https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100426.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. Why was he/she chosen instead of me? Why was I not recognized for the effort I made rather than him? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!
I’ve had successes in
my priesthood and I’d be 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.
Considering 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 God is expecting of us 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?
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 everything 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. Yet,
this history of humanity since the creation of Adam and Eve and the journey
through the Old Testament is a patchwork of fidelity and of rejection of God by
humankind. Yet, it is also a story of
God’s eternal faithfulness and mercy offered to everyone who would accept it.
Remember the parables
on the kingdom of heaven that Jesus often speaks of and that we heard recently
in our Sunday Gospels. The kingdom of heaven is a way in which we
live together in a new relationship not based on my own selfish desires but
rather on virtues that are centered on the other: those in need, the poor, the
sick, the forgotten, the suffering. That
my life is guided by knowing that I’ve been placed in the Lord’s vineyard with
many gifts 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 its spiritual treasures. Do we
honestly appreciate what has been gifted to us?
As I’ve been given
the charge and the gift from God to carefully till the soil of my faith and to
grow in imitation of Jesus himself, I can see all as gift and all as an
invitation for me to be a good servant. 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. 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.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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