27th
Sunday of Year (A) (Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:6-9;
Matthew 21:33-43)
In our first reading the prophet Isaiah described Israel as
a vineyard planted by the Lord which, despite the care He had taken of it,
failed to bring forth good fruit. And
for that, the prophet went on to warn Israel, the Lord would reject her:
Now, I will let you know what
I mean to do to my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break
through its wall, let it be trampled!
Yes, I will make it a ruin: it shall not be pruned or hoed, but
overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain
upon it. The vineyard of the LORD of
hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his cherished plant; He
looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!
In fulfilment of this prophecy the kingdom of Israel first
of all, and subsequently the kingdom of Judah, were both politically destroyed:
both were no longer kingdoms or independent political powers of any sort, just mere
tracts of territory ruled by foreign lords, inhabited by vassals.
When, therefore, Jesus took up again the prophecy of Isaiah,
when He Himself, told a parable of a landowner who planted a vineyard, prepared
for and protected it to the full, and then was unable to get the fruit of the
vineyard, His hearers, the religious authorities in Israel and Judah of Jesus’
time themselves totally subject to the world power that was Rome, realized that
His words would be of great significance.
And so they were, for Jesus made some changes to the
picture originally painted by Isaiah:
The vineyard itself was fruitful (you will remember Jesus’ earlier
words):
The harvest truly is
plentiful, but the labourers are few.
Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His
harvest. (Mt. 9:37s.)
Yes, the vineyard itself was fruitful.
However, those in charge of the vineyard, the
tenants were the unfruitful ones who would not hand over any produce or profit
to the landowner even though, eventually, the owner’s very son came to claim it
for his father.
The Jewish leaders were not, however, at that moment paying
attention to the detail about the Son: they were only intent on what they feared
would be the final outcome for themselves: their power, their position of
authority, might be taken away from them.
Earlier, the prophet Isaiah had foretold of the destruction
of the political kingdoms of Israel and Judah and that prophecy had indeed been
realized; kings and rulers had always resisted God’s prophets’ message in order
to maintain their own political power (haven’t kings and potentates done that
since the beginning of time?). But now,
in Jesus’ time, something much more sinister was taking place: Israel’s
religious leaders -- in particular the Pharisees and their Scribes -- were
fighting against Jesus to have complete power over God’s spiritual kingdom on
earth for themselves, claiming unique authority over God’s spiritual formation
of His Chosen People. Therefore, Jesus now
speaks of the end of the cultic authority of Temple with its priests and
Levites and of the rejection of the spiritual authority of the Scribes and
Pharisees as authentic exponents of the Torah; and ultimately, He even speaks of
the end of the whole nations’ spiritual exaltation as the Chosen People of God.
All these privileges, and the provisional type of divine worship
they represented, would now have to make way for the future Church of Jesus
Christ, the new and authentic People of God, comprising not only Israelites,
but all men and women of good-will who would hear and obey the Good News of God’s
own Son authentically proclaimed to all mankind:
Jesus said to them, “Did you
never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become
the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our
eyes’? Therefore, I say to you, the
kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will
produce its fruit.
You can understand why Jesus was both feared and hated by
the proud religious authorities of what had once been the kingdom of David: kings
and people had sinned -- ignoring God’s many and great prophets – and now that former
kingdom comprised nothing more than the two small and very insignificant Roman
provinces of Judea and Samaria, along with mis-trusted Galilee in the north. Nevertheless, its spiritual pride was even
more intense because of such humiliations.
Yes, they hated what had befallen their once spiritually prestigious nation;
and now, this Jesus -- coming indeed from
Nazareth in Galilee-of-the-Gentiles of all places -- was proclaiming Himself as
the Son – yes, the very Son of God -- come to harvest the fruit due
from the vineyard of the Law and the Prophets, promising no Messianic restoration
of political power, and proclaiming that Israel’s hitherto unique privilege would
no longer be their exclusive pride and joy but would be offered to all: the presently
disdained Gentiles and pagans world-wide who knew nothing of God, above all the
despicable and most hated Romans now ruling their country.
However, some might be thinking, all this is past history,
how is it relevant for us today? We
understand that God punishes sin – He always has -- and we recall that, as
punishment for sin in His Chosen People, He once destroyed their temple at
Shilo which the early Israelites had thought untouchable; and that He likewise
brought the great Temple of Solomon down to the ground; before finally -- as
Jesus foretold -- humbling the supremely impressive and most prestigious Temple
of Herod. But what does all this mean
for us? There is no unique Temple today;
we are from all nations not just one chosen people: the Kingdom of God’s own
Son cannot, surely, be destroyed as were those ancient indeed, but, nevertheless,
temporal institutions?
Let us look again at those who brought about the downfall
of the Chosen People.
Those responsible for the twice-repeated exiling of Israel
were predominantly political figures: kings, with their courtiers and
sycophants, their emulators and opponents. They did great harm to God’s People and were
punished accordingly. However, they
opposed, resisted, God’s Kingdom in Israel for predominantly earthly, worldly,
reasons, being afraid of the effect of God’s message proclaimed by the
Prophets. There were others, however,
such as the Pharisees and their Scribes, who resisted the coming of God’s
Kingdom, its flourishing in Israel, by attempting to take control of God’s
proclamation itself. The first opponents
were rejected, and indeed ejected into exile, by God; the latter, however,
themselves rejected God, and could only be themselves ejected by the death and
resurrection of His Son.
People of God today, governments (kings) and those who --
like the Pharisees of old proclaim their own version of a ‘godly’ kingdom of social
cohesion and well-being -- are now as one, shouting loud and in unison,
LIBERTY, FRATERNITY, EQUALITY, for the deafening of all spiritual and moral
teaching of divine origin, and ultimately for the destruction of all religious
institutions of and for divine sustenance in the world. And to punish such world-wide hatred for and
ambition-to-replace all that is truly spiritual, the Bible and Christian
testimony undoubtedly records, and surely encourages us to expect God’s saving
punishment today for mankind’s threatened eternal
salvation.
God’s People are not restricted to their leaders’ awareness
of God’s desires and wishes, possibilities and dealings; they follow their
leaders’ teachings in the name of Jesus faithfully and whole-heartedly, and in
return they can and do expect some spiritual awareness and understanding, some
religious guidance, which are most strangely lacking as regards our world’s
current and pandemic troubles. Is that
pandemic, with all its dire troubles and resultant human fears, totally,
merely, natural, and of no intentional, no spiritual significance? Is God indeed irrelevant to, can He be thought
to be disinterested in, what is happening all over the world.
My brother and sisters in Christ, we should be supremely
careful of, solicitous for, the purity of our faith. Today there are many who set themselves up
as teachers, as guides to worldly success and to temporal happiness. Indeed, they even lay claim to ‘know’ that God
does not exist, and that nothing lies beyond death ... although such assertions
are no longer backed up by that scientific knowledge which is modernity’s real pride
and joy: knowledge which they can so readily present, prove and even
demonstrate by practical experiment and sensible observation. Spirituality, however, the life and breath of
the human spirit is totally, totally, beyond them.
Today, many Catholics and Christians allow – or suffer -- themselves
to be persuaded, overwhelmed, by such worldly but also devilish wisdom and its messengers. Even more sadly, however, there are too many
Catholics today who are willing to ignore or even distort Jesus’ Good News of life
eternal -- which should be treasured by faith in their own mind and heart -- for a
few years of social advantage, worldly comfort, and pseudo-security in a world
that offers no future hope, no peaceful remembrance.
There is only one true peace, there is only one true way of
progress and profit for salvation, and that is given us by St. Paul, in our
second reading:
Brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing what you have learned
and received and heard in (Mother Church). Have no anxiety at all, but in
everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known
to God. Then the peace of God that
surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
(2020)
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