Sunday Gospel Comment

 

Alberic Jacovone OSB

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YEAR A

    Is 5,1-7; Phil 4,6-9; Mt 21,33-43

What more was there to do that I have not done?

The deepest logic. Last Sunday’s Gospel made us appreciate the richness of symbolic and poetic language in the Bible, when it comes to ‘Vineyard, vine & bunch of grapes’ The logic behind is this: we are indeed fortunate to life according to the Covenant of love established by our loving God, through his beloved Son Jesus Christ. Life, rich, abundant, fulfilled life is ours, if we live in the Church (vineyard) and cooperate with God as his workers and tenants, acknowledging Him as Master of the House and agreeing to the conditions and rules of the covenant. Sadly, this is not the case. Our nature is such that even with all the signs of predilection and sacraments, we remain confused, aggressive, rebellious. The deepest realization is expressed in today’s parable of the wicked tenants.

A landowner planted a vineyard, fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants. When vintage time came he expected to collect his share of the produce. The tenants instead maltreated and killed his envoys. As a last resort, the Owner sent his own Son, but they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him (Mt 21,33-39). The Son is none other that Jesus Christ. On the night before he died, after the last Supper he confided to his apostles these astonishing words: I am the vine and my Father is the vinedresser. I am the vine and you are the branches... (Jn 15,1+5).... It is naive to suppose that Matthew wrote this parable only to warn the Chief Priests and Pharisees; the parable is for the members of his community at his time and for us today: we too, Leaders and Ministers and Teachers in the Church run the risk of remaining insensitive, rebellious, divided, in-conflict with God and one another.

Wicked tenants in today’s Church. As we read (or listen to) the parable, we can’t help including vibes from our life-situations, at the point of time where we are at right now. We can’t help situating the point of the parable against the mind and mood of our present day concerns and dilemmas. Of course the early Christians told this parable as they tried to assess their position as followers of Jesus, against the fact that most of Jesus’ contemporaries rejected His claim to be God’s Son. Matthew himself places this story at this precise point, -just after the dramatic scene of expelling sellers and money changers from the Temple-, to prepare his readers for the dreadful downfall and crucifixion of Jesus: all this was part of God’s plan, and God’s Son had to be expelled from the vineyard and killed. At this point, the words of the prophet Isaiah are truly powerful: "what more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? There is a perennial meaning in the parable of the vineyard; and we are all caught into its plot. In the vineyard: Son, owner, tenants, workers, messengers, killers... have each their own individual logic, reason, disappointment and condemnation. A lesson for us. In the huge concern of preserving the environment for future generations, we can all learn a lesson from the Gospel logic of vineyard and vine. We are stewards and tenants in God’s beautiful creation; and this role brings immediately a responsibility of keeping the delicate balance of nature. Ask Yourself: where is it in my life that I must be careful of taking God’s beautiful ‘vineyard’ for granted? which and in what area are my blind spots, in my responsibility to God and fellow ‘workers’?

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