TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Therefore, I say to you “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you andgiven to a people that will produce its fruit”

Mt. 21, 33-43

Rev. Alexander Diaz

We are celebrating the twenty-seventh Sunday in ordinary time, Jesus keeps on explaining to us the Kingdom of God thru parables, thru those parables, He wants us to have knowledge of the truth.

This Sunday’s parable is known as the “homicidal tenants”, the Lord resumes the history of salvation. He compares Israel to a chosen vineyard, with a hedge around it, with a wine press in it, and a high watch tower, where the guard in charge of protecting it will stand. God had spared no effort cultivating and beautifying His vineyard.

He has given us all the resources, so we can work and develop this vineyard to the maximum. Each of the elements with which the Lord has prepared this vineyard has its own significance: the servants, sent to the vineyard by the Lord, are the Prophets, that throughout history have been responsible to announce the good news to the people.

They were charged to ensure that the people increase their knowledge and be aware of the graces God was bestowing and providing on the vineyard. To denounce to the people their small appreciation without the vision of all the graces that were given to them by the Lord.

The Son is Jesus, killed outside the walls of Jerusalem, let us remembered, He was crucified on the Golgota, outside of the great city, condemned with scorn and hate by the tenants of the vineyard, who are the unfaithful Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees, who thought themselves owners of the temple and the religion at that time. Hence, forgetting that they had their positions by the mercy and grace of God, the creator and Lord of all.

The other people, who will become tenants of the vineyard were the pagans, non-Jewish people. They were looked down at, seeing with disdain and despised by the authorities of the time. They were, after all, the ones who really listened and practiced the teachings of Jesus. The absence of the owner shows us, that God really confided His vineyard to Israel and its leaders. From there comes the responsibility of these leaders and the demands of the owner to be accountable, hence the reason He sends His servants to obtain His produce.

Again He sends more servants, more numerous than the first ones, to claim what was justly owned Him, but they have the same fate as the first group. This is in reference to the ill-treatment infringed, given to God’s prophets by the kings and high priests of Israel.

St Matthew tells us in the Gospel passage that: “the high priests and the Pharisees, upon hearing the parables understood He was referring to them”. Finally, the owner sends His own Son, thinking they were going to listen and respect Him. But when the tenants saw the Son, they said to one another: “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire His inheritance”. That was the despicable plan of the leaders of the Sinagogue, blinded by ambition and selfishness, they planned to become the owners of Israel by killing Jesus.

For us, Christians of this time and all times, this parable is an exhortation for us to be more faithful to Christ. Then we won’t reoffend God with the same offenses of the Jews in the parable.

We should be aware of the gifts that God gives us. This Sunday ‘s gospel invite us to reflect on the time and the gifts that God has given us throughout our lives. Sometimes we become aware that our life is passing by and when we try to add the fruits we have given out for the good of the world, the Church and the souls, we end up with very poor and rickety results.

¿What happened? ¿Have we used our intelligence, our will and the gifts we have received? ¿Have we lived like an abandoned vineyard without realizing that our mission was to produce sweet grapes? ¿Or have we lived like the tenants of the vineyard, worrying about ourselves and not of the love that the vineyard owner felt?

Times keeps passing on, while there is life, there is hope for true conversion, for real transformation. ¿How many people when confronted by Mother Theresa and taken to her house in Calcuta, discovered in those poor dying men and women, that they had to and were supposed to do something with their lives? Let us not wait until tomorrow to discover this in our own lives.

God expects a lot from us. We are His vineyard, His favorite vineyard, and He is happy and glorified when we produce lots of fruits. The fruits are in relation to our meekness and docility to the actions of God.

Therefore, to give good fruits it is necessary to be meek to the plans of God. Each one of us has his/her own vocation and have been situated in the precise place in the Church, we are where we are supposed to be. Each one of us therefore, has a personal and not transferable mission.

We are not to carry out our mission any way we want or according to our whim. Our fruitful and spiritual success is based on our obedience to God’s plan, as we can see it in the lives of all the Saints.

The secret is based on our identification with the obedient Christ, who suffers and gives His life for the rescue and the salvation of all men and women. The spiritual fertility always goes thru the cross and the pain. Whoever wants to be fruitful running away from this law of salvation is mistaken, and one day will end up bitterly disappointed.

“Without the shedding of the blood, there will be no redemption.” AMEN!!