Reflections on the Sunday Liturgy from Pedro Arrupe Institute, Raia, Goa liturgy.deepenyourfaith.in
27th Sunday Oct 2, 2011 Is 5:1-7; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43 Spiritual Reflection: Fr. Patrick de Melo SJ Although Jesus directed the parable of the wicked tenants at the Jewish leadership of his day, it still has a lot to teach us about stewardship. As such it has very important lessons for church leaders in particular but also for all of God's people in general. We all have at least received life from God. Life is given to us in trust and we are expected to cultivate and manage this life in such a way that it bears good fruit - fruit that we can present to God the owner of our lives on the day of reckoning. Today's gospel calls for responsibility and accountability in our dealings with God, which include our dealings with our fellow human beings. The parable teaches us a lot about God and how God relates to us. First we see the Providence of God. "There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower." Before God entrusts a responsibility to you, He makes provision for all that you will need in carrying out the responsibility. After all it is his work, the work of God, that we are doing (mission Dei) and not our own works. There is the same loving care by the landowner for the vineyard and we do well to linger here and dwell on the goodness of God. "What could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done?" God is ever lovingly interested in his creation; he is interested in each one of us. Not only does he love each one of us and the full of creation, but he also nourishes and sustains his creation with his love. The Gospel parable in comparison to the first reading puts emphasis on the fact that God’s love for his vineyard is also shown in that he provides for its care through the tenants he puts in-charge of his vineyard. God’s love is demonstrated and expressed not in the abstract, but through us, through you and through me. We become the instruments of God’s love in this world. "Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country" This shows God's Trust in us. God does not stand looking over our shoulders, policing us to make sure we do the right thing. God leaves the job to us and goes on vacation to a far country, so to say. God trusts that we will do the right thing. Unfortunately many of us don't. The story also highlights God's Patience with us. God sends messenger after messenger to the rebellious managers who would not render to God what is His due. With each messenger, God provides another chance for us to put an end to rebellion and do the right thing. Finally there comes a last chance. God plays His last card and sends His only son. If we miss this last chance, then we've missed it. In the end we see God's Judgement in which rebellious humanity lose their very lives, and their privileges are transferred to others who are more promising. The picture is that of a provident, trusting, patient, but also a just God. >From all this we can learn a lot about ourselves and how we stand in relation to God. First we see human Privilege. Like the managers of the vineyard, everything we have is a privilege and not a merit. This is what we mean when we say that everything is God's grace. Grace is an unmerited favour. Life itself is a privilege which can be taken away from any of us at any moment. Privilege comes, however, with Responsibility. We are ultimately responsible and accountable to God for the way we use or abuse our God-given privileges. God has given us all that we need to make a judicious use of all our privileges, yet we retain the ability to abuse them. This is called Freedom. Let us then pray for the wisdom and the courage never to abuse our privileges but rather to make a judicious use of all the privileges and opportunities that God gives us. Scriptural Reflection: Richard D’Souza SJ The context of today's Gospel reading follows from the one of last week with Jesus giving another parable hitting out at the Chief Priests, the Pharisees and the Scribes. This parable of the wicked tenants is a modification and a further interpretation of a commonly known vineyard parable which we read in the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah. Jesus is attacking the close-heartedness of the Jewish religious hierarchy for not only refusing to believe in him, but also failing to bear any fruit. The original parable found in Isaiah probably dates back to the time of King Jotham (740-736 BC), father of the famous King Ahaz, along with the rest of the first five chapters of the Book of Isaiah. These oracles of Isaiah, who preached in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, are mainly directed against the social injustice and the formalism in religion which had crept into Jewish society. He speaks of the corruption and rebellion of the people (1:2), their self-sufficiency (5:21), their arrogance (2:7), their superstition and idolatry (2:6,8), their drinking habits (5:11-12), their refusal to help the oppressed (1:21-26) and their own oppression of the poor (3:13-15). Injustice and piety, oppression and worship, immoral conduct and sacrificial cult went hand in hand. Isaiah tells the people of Israel that their worship is unacceptable to the Lord (1:10-20) unless they “learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the orphan and plead for the wisdom” (10:17). In a way, the Song of the Lord's vineyard (5:1-7) sums up the first set of oracles of Isaiah (Chap 1-5) and speaks of the love God had for his chosen people – which he now identifies particularly with the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is a skillfully concocted parable which hints at unrequited love, and contrasts the care Yahweh lavishes on his people with their sinful response (mainly their social crimes), and thereby hints at the destruction and the judgment to come. The parable ends with a play of words in Hebrew – words that sound similar but have radically different meanings: mispat and sedaqa (judgment and justice) are what he looked for, mispah and se'aqa (violence and outcry) are what he found. Much more than the crimes of their Kings, the Lord is speaking out against the corruption, and the crimes against the poor and the oppressed which have become increasing rampant in Judah and Jerusalem. This is corroborated from the fact that immediately after the song there follows a long rant against the social injustice of the nation (Is 5:8-24). The song predicts destruction on Judah and Jerusalem. The book of Isaiah would go further and call Assyria to be the instrument in the hand of God for the punishment of His disobedient people (5:25-30). This happens in the context of the Syro-Ephramite war which took place in the 8th century, when Assyria was a great superpower. The vassal kings, notably King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of the Northern Kingdom (often called Ephraim) formed a coalition to break off from the rule of Assyria. Now Ahaz, the next King of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) refused to joined this coalition. So both Syria and Ephraim waged a war against the Kingdom of Judah. Besieged from the North and facing increasing trouble form the Philistines and the Edomites, King Ahaz, instead of appealing to God, turns to King Tilgath-Pileser III of Assyria for help. The Assyrian king defeated the Northern Kingdom and Syria, but in the end, Ahaz was the loser in depending totally on Assyria. He had to bribe off Assyria with the treasures from the Temple of Jerusalem as well as he built idols of the Assyrian gods in Judah to find favor with his new protector. It is in such a context that Isaiah preaches against Judah and Israel and in particular against the city of Jerusalem, and offers King Ahaz three signs, among which is found the famous verse: “A young woman is with Child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Is 7:14). This same parable is continuously reinterpreted in the life of the people of Israel. Already during the lifetime of Isaiah when King Hezekiah of Judah, the son of King Ahaz reigned, he had to face once more the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib who destroyed some of the towns of Judah and eventually laid a siege on Jerusalem. It dawned on the Jerusalemites that the parable of Isaiah might come true. The same parable speaks once more to the Jews when they are sitting in exile in Babylon years later and witness the destruction of their city Jerusalem. It is this parable therefore which Jesus is referring to in the Gospel, and which was well-known by his audience. But he modifies the parable, to speak of the various emissaries that God had sent to his people (the prophets down the ages) culminating in the person of Jesus, the Son of God (a rich theme in the Gospel of Matthew) himself. The fault of the wicked tenants is that not only did they not produce any fruit, but they also rejected the Son, Jesus. But it also implies that in rejecting Jesus, the Son of God, they cannot possibly bear any fruit. All three synoptic Gospels quote Ps 18:22-23 to demonstrate the changed centrality of this new parable of Jesus – that is, the rejection of the corner stone, the Son of God, and ultimately the rejection of God himself, which reflects in them not bearing fruit and the adverse social injustice which flows from it. To the Matthean community, the parable makes a lot of sense as they have to face the rejection of the reorganized Jewish community under the guidance of the Pharisees. Therefore Matthew will be the only Gospel to write in v. 43: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produce the fruits of the kingdom.” In this Matthew makes a special reference to his community as one who by believing in Jesus produces fruits in the face of much opposition. Paul too writes to the community in Philippi which is facing a certain amount of external opposition. In the face of this opposition, he urges them to depend totally on God, on Christ so that he becomes the corner stone of their life. It is only when everything is done in and through Christ, that there will be peace, and Christians will be able to produce rich fruit by being true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable and worthy of praise. Theological Reflection: Fr. Agnelo Pinto SJ The vineyard and its owner is the common theme of today’s readings. In such a Mediterranean country like Israel, vine, olives and figs trees are the main fruits of these areas, while vineyards abound the region. Viniculture was a common agricultural occupation. So the comparison of the vineyard would have been easily understood by all hearers in Palestine. Besides Isaiah (5:1-7), Hosea (10:1), Jeremiah (2:21; 5:10 etc.) and Ezekiel (15:1-8) also refer to vineyards. In the first reading, Isaiah (v. 1b -2) describes the various steps in planting a vineyard: From the initial preparation of the ground to the building of a surrounding protective wall and the setting up of a watchtower, all of it speaks of the love and the meticulous planning the owner of the vineyard had in it, and his expectations for a rich harvest. If this first part reads like a love song of the owner for his vineyard, it soon turns into a song of lament as the owner complains bitterly against his vineyard. He is disappointed with the wild and sour grapes, and in frustration tears down the protecting wall so that the vineyard is ravished by the wild beasts, and is utterly in ruins. The prophet clarifies that the owner is Yahweh; his ‘beloved’ and his loved vineyard is the House of Israel and the people of Judah from whom he had expected much. Yahweh now judges the people of Judah but he asks the people of Jerusalem to judge for themselves whether what He is about to do is just or not. While the anger of the Lord is understandable, the question can be posed: Why does the Lord let the vineyard go to complete ruin? Why does he destroy all that he so dearly built up himself? Just as the people of Jerusalem asked these questions in the light of the covenant God made with them, so also humankind today continues to ask existential questions about destruction and suffering. While such existential questions continue to remain mysteries unto themselves, the Gospel reading today provides a hint through which the first reading can now be reread in a new light: It is only by destroying the vineyard completely that something new can come up; it is only changing the leadership, the tenants, that a new direction can be sought. The Lord often cuts down and destroys only to build up once again. Mythology will remind us that only from the ashes can the new phoenix rise again. Often in life, we find our lives in utter ruins only so that we may start afresh and rise up again. The Gospel reading (Mt 21: 33-43), while having a similar theme of the vineyard, is a parable retold by Jesus for his new audience. But the focus is on the wicked tenants and the sending of the Son. The tenants kill the only heir, the son, hoping that the vineyard will become theirs. Jesus turns to his listeners and asks them what in their opinion should be done to such tenants. Their honest answer is that those tenants should be destroyed and the land taken back. In other words he gets them to condemn the Jews and their religious leaders out of their own mouths. The Chief Priests, the Pharisees and the Scribes, who are also listening to Jesus, are quick to catch the deeper meaning of the parable. In fact they see the similarity in every detail between the tenants and themselves. It was a public but subtle condemnation of them and so they were ready to arrest and kill Jesus at that moment. Like all human beings, the Pharisees and scribes would not accept and admit their faults and hardness of heart. Their attitude was one of pride and conceit. They considered themselves the chosen people, the models in Israel for the observance of the law. (Mt 11: 25 also Jn 7: 48-49) So how could this upstart of a preacher with no formal training as a Rabbi tell them that their privileged position before God would be taken away from them and given to someone else? Their own past history had taught them nothing. But the parable takes a particular tone in suggesting that the tenants by rejecting and killing the only Son try to usurp the power of the owner. In rejecting and killing Jesus, the Pharisees and the Scribes were rejecting God himself, and destroying his right to his vineyard, Israel. In rejecting Jesus, they were trying to usurp the power of God. They wished to be God themselves – a serious fault against the first commandment. Their attitude was so very different from that of the Psalmist in today’s psalm (Ps 80 [79]). Written most probably in some sort of national calamity, it pleads with God to return and rescue Israel who is going through bad days. It is a heart-felt plea for God to rescue them in their suffering. In contrast to the first and the Gospel reading which accuses Israel for not bearing fruit, the Psalm is a response by a repentant Israelite to save the vineyard. The appeal is made to the goodness that God has shown them in the past when he blessed Israel. In verse 8, the Psalmist also refers to Israel as the vine, the same theme in today’s readings. Israel is the vine that the Lord had uprooted from Egypt protected all through the years of the journey through the desert and then planted in Palestine and Canaan so that it was now a large strong vine spread all over the land up to the sea (v. 8-13). He asks God to remember those choice days and to come back and ‘smile’ on Israel once again. He admits that Israel has tasted bitter tears of suffering and repentance. So he pleads with God to make the vineyard his chosen land once again. He refers to the signs of rejection that Isaiah and Jesus used in the parables – breaking the wall protecting the vineyard. He asks Yahweh to rebuild the wall once again so as to keep the ravaging boar and wild animals (the invading warriors) out and to protect it once again. Just one look of reproof, he says, is enough to save the vineyard and to doom her enemies. The readings of today like the psalm bring out forcefully that if Israel does not produce appropriate fruit, she will not only lose her privileged status, but she will be rejected by Yahweh. In other words, Jesus and Isaiah stress that the vineyard is judged not by its privileged position, but by the fruit it produces – in this case, in the belief it has in Jesus Christ, a belief shown in actions produced in one’s life. All the readings describe the end result if Israel is not faithful to the Lord – abandonment of the vineyard till it is destroyed. The only hope is in the repentant pleading of the Psalmist, a very important theme in the Christian faith. Christian repentance is always an acknowledgment of our sinful destroyed nature, and our acceptance of God’s grace to be rebuilt by him. All of us make mistakes: We fail and give God umpteen reasons to reject us by our actions. But the important thing really lies in how do we recover and undo the effects of these mistakes and failures? The scriptures would suggest that true metanoia lies in first being honest and aware of our real selves without trying to cover up and make excuses for our actions and behaviour, or without falling back on our privileges, our status and superiority over others. It is only by reaching such a state of honesty, especially when we experience failure and rejection that we can cry out in our helplessness. It is then that true repentance sets in and God stoops down to our aid; only then does He rebuild us.