27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A)
In Isaiah, the vineyard is the nation of Israel. God provided everything necessary for good fruit, but harvested only hard and sour grapes, instead of sweetness and joy. God desired right judgment, but got bloodshed. God desired justice, but the cry of the oppressed rose up instead. As a result, the vineyard is threatened with drought and warned it will become a ruin filled with thorns and only good to be grazed by goats.
In the Gospel, we see the same in the religious world. God instituted a spiritual kingdom. God hovered around them as a hedge of protection. God gave the law, as a tower of reason and mercy pointing the way from Earth to Heaven. The law was disregarded. Justice was not done. The widows and the orphans were neglected. The stranger was not welcomed. Babies were sacrificed. God sent prophets, but the people rejected them. They beat Jeremiah, and they killed Isaiah. They stoned Naboth and Zechariah for speaking an inconvenient truth to those in power. And, of course, they killed the Son of God.
Our nation is like this vineyard. God has given everything to us. We have natural riches, and enjoy freedom and a heritage of faith. But does God find the sweet fruit of a people rejoicing in the love of God? Does God find us without anxiety, full of peace, and thinking on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and praiseworthy? Or, does God find hard and sour people wallowing in a river of hatred and filth washing over us through the internet and media?
We, the church, are like this vineyard. Spiritually, God has given everything to us in and through the Church.
Pope Francis released an unexpected letter for the feast of Saint Jerome last week. Saint Jerome brought the Bible into the language of the common people. For one thousand, six hundred years, the Church has had the benefit of scripture presented in common language. Saint Jerome’s translation was the foundation for our first English bible over one thousand years ago, and the first Spanish Bible over seven hundred years ago. But, today, we are almost entirely ignorant of scripture. Even the scriptures we read or hear in the mass are unfamiliar. Our children do not know the stories of the Bible, much less the words. They do not, because we do not.
My heart is this vineyard, too. So is yours. Are we bearing the sweet fruit of the Holy Spirit? Or, are we hard and bitter?
Do we work for justice, or do we ignore the cry of the oppressed? Do we fight for love of God and neighbor, or only to win the argument? Do we stand with Christ where he is present in the most vulnerable when the world is against us, or only when it is expedient and socially acceptable?
Do we allow our words and our lives to be guided and shaped by the text of scripture, and follow the law of love to Heaven, or do we choose to remain ignorant of the word of God?
Do we accept prophetic teaching from our Holy Father, from our Apostles, and our pastors, or do we drive them away with our anger, and kill their spirits with our words? Are our hearts transformed by their teaching, or are we our own authority?
Do we know and live according to the traditions of the church, or do we reject them as out of date, and instead embrace every novelty of philosophy and morality? Do we tear down the tower of divine law, and build a tower of Babel in our hearts?
God is patient and merciful, but God is just.
If we will think on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and praiseworthy, and do what we have learned and received, then the God of peace will be with us. If we produce the fruits of justice, and of repentance, then God will transform that fruit into the wine of joy.
We have been disturbed by the pandemic. We have been disturbed by the suffering of the sick. We have been disturbed by ignorance and panic and political manipulators. The pandemic is certainly like a hoe in the hands of a gardener who disturbs the ground to remove weeds, stimulate the roots, and allow water to penetrate hard soil.
Will we bear fruit?
