VINEYARD TALES

[1]In the early 1990’s I received orders to Pearl Harbor, HI.   For six years my family lived in the Aloha State.  Our house was located on the Pearl City peninsula in base housing.  For those unfamiliar with military base housing, often times it is in a secure area surrounded by natural barriers or a constructed wall with limited and sometimes guarded access, much like many of the housing developments we live in and the vineyards we hear about in scripture.   Pearl City was considered an open housing area, meaning there was no guard posted at the gate.  At one point, while we lived, there the tenants experienced a string of robberies and began to demand a guard be posted at the entrance to make sure only authorized tenants could enter the housing area.  It was believed the locals were getting entering the area and were the culprits of the crimes. 

When I listen to reports about what people do or do not have and how they respond to their life situations, I’m struck by the difference between those who are grateful and those who feel entitled.   It seems that a sense of entitlement fills many people, which destroys the virtues of gratitude and responsibility.   The dynamic played out in the Gospel parable today is that the tenants wanted what was not theirs and they were willing to do anything, even murdering the landowner’s servants and son, mistakenly believing they would be given the vineyard.   Envy, lust, abdication of our responsibilities and blindness yield more than wild grapes.   They feed on themselves until something or someone ends the vicious cycle. Paul’s letter to the Philippians offers an antidote. Seek whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious. Truth invites gratitude, fosters appreciation and helps us grow in right relationship (justice) with God, others and ourselves.[2]

Speaking through Isaiah, God asks, “What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” (Is 5:4)  In God’s great love for his people he frees them from the bondage of Egypt, and wonders how they could have drifted so far from the Lord.  He reminds us how he sent prophets, throughout history, to call his people back to right relationship with him, but the prophets were rejected and even killed.  Does he give up on his people?   No, he sends his only Son!   Here indeed, like the Shakespearean character Othello, God has “loved not wisely, but too well.”  For in one final outrage, they killed his Son, hanging him on a cross.  Jesus concludes the parable with a warning to the tenants, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” (Mt 21:43)[3]

Here’s a thought to ponder, we are the tenants of the vineyard now and there are three things that come into focus for us to consider:

First, the vineyard may actually be the zip code in which we live.  The parable challenges us to ponder whether we are producing fruit in the vineyard that bears the address where we live, which is necessary for the building the Kingdom of God.  We consistently hear that the Gospel has lost it taste, its freshness, and its luster in much of our culture today. The gods of secularism, consumerism, and materialism erode the truth of our faith.   We are confronted with untold acts of terrorism at home and abroad.  Yet in the midst of these givens, we are called to propose the Joy of the Gospel in our own neighborhood and in the ordinary, everyday moments of our day.

Second, the stones rejected by the builder may be the unwanted dimensions of our own personalities.   Think about those wild and sour parts of ourselves we don’t like, those parts we want to hide, the things we keep secret. Consider Jesus’ words, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?” (Mt 21:42)  When we look at what we reject about ourselves, there’s the clue to something wonderful, something new, and something exciting.  There is a saying the Salesian tradition, attributed to St. Francis de Sales: “Love you abjections.” In other words, everything belongs.  Certainly, we do not welcome sin or unhealthy behavior, but coming face-to-face with our own faults and flaws, we can learn to love even the negative as we turn it to the positive.

Third, God does not give up too easily, even as we need to do more tending to the vines in our own gardens.  Often, we are like the wild grapes spoken of in both readings.  We scapegoat and cast blame on the other, forgetting the mercy God grants in our regard.  Jesus asks his audience, “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” (Mt 21:41)  Imagine God is pointing his finger at us, as we tend the vineyard right now, as the current tenants—what have we got to show for it?[4]

The interesting thing about our base housing crime spree, once investigated they found out it was a couple of residents who were behind the break-ins.  Tenants behind protective fences or walls can lead to a false sense of security, even complacency, as we feel in control of our surroundings, set apart from the rest of the world.  We have no reason to feel complacent or superior, but we have plenty of reason to be grateful.  Isaiah couldn’t imagine what more God could do for us, he didn’t know God would send his own Son.   We do.   When we approach the mystery of the Eucharist we know we’ve been loved far more deeply than we could ever imagine or deserve.  How have we responded?  As a Church and as individuals, we must each try to live in such a way that God’s love affair with us, that our labors in the vineyard, may produce and abundant harvest and give what is due to Him the owner of the vineyard.

---

[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986.  Scriptures: Isiah 5:1-7, Philippians 4:6-9, Matthew 21:33-43.

[2] Living the Word, by Laurie Brink, O.P. and Paul Colloton, O.S.F.S © 2016 World Library Publication, Franklin Park, IL

[3] Sundays with Jesus, Reflections for the Year of Matthew. by James DiGiacomo, SJ © 2007 Paulist Press, Mahwah, NJ

[4] Naked, and You Clothed Me, Edited by Deacon Jim Knipper © 2013. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” by Fr. James J. Greenfield,  OSFS

REBUILD MY CHURCH

Perhaps you know the story of the call of St. Francis of Assisi?   Praying in a run-down chapel, he heard the Lord saying, “Francis, go and repair my house; look, it is falling into ruins.”   Now, God wasn’t speaking about that particular chapel; he was speaking about the challenges facing the whole Church at the time. 

Francis was never a priest, though he was later ordained a deacon under his protest.  Francis was not a reformer; he preached about returning to God and obedience to the Church.   Francis must have known about the decay in the Church, but he always showed the Church and its people his utmost respect. 

Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat...and loving God.   With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places.  He read the command to the rich young man to "sell all his good and give to the poor," the order to the apostles to "take nothing on their journey", and the demand to "take up the cross daily."  "Here is our rule," Francis said -- as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that.  He was going to do what no one thought possible any more -- live by the Gospel.  Sound familiar?  Maybe about another man named Francis?  Pope Francis from the begin of his pontificate has been the example of how to live the joy of the Gospel.  Yet some in the Church have characterized his actions as distorting the church they know.

Nehemiah had a similar call, to go and rebuild Jerusalem.   In fact, in every age and in every generation, God has called his people to rebuild his Church.  For decades society has done everything in its power to take God out of virtually everything.  This week I was reading Facebook posts about the Las Vegas shooting.  The discussion went to "freedom" but in the same post the person said we have to be alert and careful about "high risk venues" like the country and western concert.  This is not freedom to me!  When we consider what is a "high risk venue" they have become the theater, the sports arena, the subway and airways, it has become the mall and the workplace, most disheartening it has become the college campus, high schools and even elementary schools.  It has even become places of worship.

You might be thinking, what in the world can I do to rebuild God's Church?  A couple things come to my mind right away, one easy, one not so easy, both necessary to rebuild God’s Church (with a capital “C”).  The easy thing is to do something simple, do something that makes sense.  Ask yourself, what would be helpful?  Where are the greatest needs?  What are my gifts best suited for?

The not so easy thing, live the joy of the Gospel at all times.  Like St. Francis of Assisi, like Nehemiah, Pope Francis and so many of the Church Fathers, in the midst of the messiness of the Church and the world we must live out the love Christ pours out to us in this mystery we participate in.  All we need to do is take the first step.  To love our neighbor as ourselves, to rejoice when we a persecuted because of our Lord, to take up our daily cross and be the loving, compassionate, and merciful image of our Lord and savior in this age and time.  Let us rebuild His Church.

TAKE THE FIRST STEP

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul. On April 23, 1833, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded by Frédéric Ozanam and six companions.   Most American Catholics have heard of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.   For over 170 years, it has been present to the needy among us. 

In a very real sense, the ultimate mission of St. Vincent de Paul, as well as the society that bears his name, began in 1617.   St. Vincent heard about a local family where everyone was sick and without any means of help. Although his parish responded with abundant kindness for this unfortunate family, the family needed help beyond immediate care.   So Vincent established the first of many societies that bear his name. 

According to Butler’s Lives of the Saints, “Into [this first society], he wove the fundamental principles of his own spirituality: to see Christ in the poor and to thus become holy and to establish a personal charity that takes a person spiritually and materially into the very hovels of the poor.” Giving money and food is good and a necessary form of charity to meet a person’s material needs, yet there most often is a deeper need that is not so easily met.  It is a need that requires a personal engagement to hear the person’s story, to develop some level of a trusting relationship that will lift them up to move beyond the need for charity.   Their situation may have been caused by a one-time event that they could not recover from, or a situation beyond their control that contributes to their need for charity.   All too often there is a systematic societal barrier that makes climbing back to self-sufficiency all the more difficult.

Our local branches of the St. Vincent de Paul Society continues this same mission.  Much like the apostles whom Jesus sent on their new journey, empowered with the authority to cast out demons and cure diseases.   Can you image the look on their faces?  With the response you want us to do what? You want us to go and "Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, nor let no one take a second tunic.” (Lk 9:3)  As ill prepared or uncomfortable they may have been to be completely dependent on the hospitality of those to whom they minister, they only needed the power and authority given by Jesus.  All they had to do is take the first step, and go.

Just like the apostles and the St. Vincent de Paul Society members, we are being sent out.  Nourished by this meal of the body and body of the real presence of Jesus, no matter how ill-equipped we may feel, we are being empowered by the Holy Spirit to reach out to personally engage those most in need.  Pope Francis, in a radio address at the conclusion of the Year of Mercy underscores that, “the poor are not a problem: they are a resource from which to draw as we strive to accept and practice in our lives the essence of the Gospel.”  Will you take the first step?