Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 5, 2014 Cycle A
by Rev. Jose Maria Cortes, F.S.C.E.
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In the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. In the beginning, the tenants were very grateful to the landowner for the confidence he had demonstrated in them. They were trying to do their best by working hard in the vineyard. However, when the landowner went on a long journey to a distant country, the tenants’ memory of him faded with time. At a certain point, the tenants started to feel that they were the actual owners of the vineyard. Although they had been confident, now they became anxious and fearful. They were afraid of strangers. They saw others as competitors and assumed a defensive attitude. They were afraid of losing what they wrongfully thought belonged to them. The landowner repeatedly sends his servants to obtain his produce but the tenants violently reject them and all reminders that they are not the owners of the vineyard, even killing the landowner’s son.
When Jesus tells this parable, he is talking about the covenant between God and the people of Israel: “The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel” (Is 5:5). However, we can also apply this parable to each one of us.
What was the tenants’ problem? First of all, it was a problem of consciousness and secondly of morality.
Their initial gratitude rapidly dissipated. The tenants forgot who the owner of the property was. They took possession of what did not belong to them. They usurped the place of the owner.
From the beginning of history, man has been trying to usurp God’s place. It is easy for us to forget the origin of everything. We view people and things as our possessions instead of something given to us. God is far away from our daily experiences and from what we consider important. He seems absent and, as the reading says, he is on a journey. Unconsciously, we start thinking that we are the owners. At the same time, we start to be afraid of losing what we have and become anxious. We view others as competitors, who can steal what is ours. Such a perception of reality leads us to treat people and things badly. The moral problem, sin, is a consequence of our forgetting to whom we belong. We receive everything from God. All is grace. It is easy for us to forget that what we are and what we possess have been given to us.
In today’s second reading, Saint Paul invites the Philippians: “Have no anxiety at all” (Phil 4:6). Saint Paul says that we need to change our minds. We need to increase our awareness that everything belongs to the mystery of Christ. Thus, our dialogue with God has to be constant. If Christ were only someone from the past, the landowner who went on a journey, if he were not a real person that we are in a relationship with everyday, we should immediately start thinking like the tenants, that the vineyard is ours.
The Apostle says: “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” He is inviting us to consider how important prayer is. Prayer is not only the moment when we pray but also a way of living, an awareness of our dependence on God. It means to live life in a more religious way, accepting everything from God and giving it back in an act of thanksgiving.
The landowner wants to have tenants because he wants to have collaborators. He wants to share what he has with his workers. What kind of collaboration is required from us? This question touches the quintessence of Christianity. What is required from us is very simple: to remain constantly aware that the vineyard belongs to the owner and act accordingly. We need to be aware that everything has been given to us, to be grateful. Then what we do, our moral actions, are expressions of this gratitude. God is fruitful and he wants us to be the same. At the end of the Gospel, Jesus says: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
Let us ask for the grace to recognize that everything belongs to the Father. Let us be thankful and give thanks for everything that we receive from his hands. Let us ask for the grace of a grateful heart. Let us pray that our actions may be expressions of our gratitude.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.