+The Vineyard, the Kingdom given to a people that will produce its fruit 4th-Oct.2026
Isaiah in our first reading tells of a friend who had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines. The vineyard, of course, is an image of each and all of our lives together. We have all been surrounded by a lot of loving care but then the harvest time comes when our loving Lord is looking for the fruits of what he has done for us.
Our readings today would have us take an honest look at our lives as individuals and as members of a family or a community. Jesus speaks of how the vintage time has drawn near when the landowner is sending his servants to obtain the produce, but they are beaten, killed or stoned. Then even the landowner’s son is sent with hope that he will be respected. But he is thrown out of the vineyard and killed. Jesus saw this happening among his own people. Mysteriously this was to bring about something that would transform the whole world we live in.
As Jesus told those listening to him and is telling us: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; …and it is wonderful in our eyes.” All too often our human labor in God’s vineyard fails. The fruits looked for are not found. What God is looking for is wonderfully described by St Paul to the Philippians as we just heard. Paul tells us that “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 worth of praise, think about these things. ..Then the God of peace will be with you.”
If Christians practiced what Paul is telling us to do, our world would be transformed within days. We see all too clearly our human failings. St Gertrud of Helfta, quoted in Give Us This Day fully acknowledges our human weakness, giving us a prayer that I think speaks to the heart of the matter: “My Jesus, by your loving-kindness destroy all my iniquities; by your charity cover over and hide all my sins; by your cherishing-love make amends for my negligence; by your love reestablish me in that freedom of spirit by which you, the heir of innocence, have set me free, dying for me by giving the price of your own blood. Make me conform to your will so that I may transform my life in you. Make me completely whatever you want me to be so that after this life, having left behind the cloud of my body, I may in jubilation see your mellifluous face.” She captures here the heart of the matter, the fact that only with the continual gift of divine grace can any of us whether as individuals, families or communities, bring forth the fruits that God expects from a vineyard divinely cultivated.
All this is happening right here are we celebrate this Holy Eucharist. Here is made present the ultimate act of God’s great love for us. Here takes place the very act of Christ’s giving up his life in love for us on the cross, freeing us of our sins. Only in the experience of this unfathomable love will our hearts be freed of the wild grapes St Paul speaks in his letter to the Galatians: “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies.” Here at this Altar, the fruits of the Holy Spirit seek to fill and flood all our hearts.
Is 5:1-7; Phil 4:6-9; Matt 21:33-43