(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:
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 rain upon
it. The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is
the house of Israel, the people of Judah, his cherished plant; He waited for
judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry (hark,
a cry for help!) (hark, a cry of distress!)!
In fulfilment of this prophecy the kingdom of Israel first
of all, and subsequently the kingdom of Judah, were politically destroyed: no
longer kingdoms or independent political powers of any sort, both became mere tracts
of territory ruled by foreign lords, inhabited by vassals.
When therefore, Jesus -- taking up again that prophecy of
Isaiah -- Himself told a parable of a landowner who planted, prepared and
protected a vineyard, and was then unable to get the fruit of the vineyard, His
hearers --- the religious authorities in Israel and Judah at that time --- realized
that His words would be of great significance for them.
And so they were, for Jesus made some most important 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.)
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
in theme of his father.
The Jewish leaders were not, however, at that moment paying
attention to details 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.
Isaiah had foretold the destruction of the political
kingdoms of Israel and Judah and that prophecy had indeed been realized; kings
and rulers had always resisted the messages of God’s prophets 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 gainsaying
Jesus in order to have control over God’s spiritual kingdom on earth for
themselves, claiming a unique teaching authority for the understanding of the
Mosaic Law and for the spiritual formation of God’s 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 foretells the end of Israel’s spiritual exaltation as the God’s Chosen
People.
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 also all men and women of good-will who would hear Jesus’ Personal message with
faith, and obey in sincerity of heart 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 will and the words of many great
prophets – and now that former kingdom was to comprise nothing more than two small
and very insignificant Roman provinces of Judea and Samaria, along with mis-trusted
Galilee in the north.
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!! He came promising no
Messianic restoration of political power, rather He came proclaiming that
Israel’s hitherto unique privilege would be offered to all the presently disdained
Gentiles including the despicable and most hated Romans now ruling their
country, all of them pagans who had previously known nothing of the one,
true, God.
However -- some might now 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 the sins of His Chosen People, He once destroyed their
temple at Shilo which the early Israelites had thought inviolable; and that He
likewise brought the Temple of Solomon down to the ground; before finally -- as
Jesus foretold -- humbling the supremely impressive and most prestigious Temple
of Herod. But, again, what does
all this mean for us? Let us, therefore,
look again at those who brought about the downfall of the Chosen People.
Those responsible for the twice-repeated exiling of Israel
were priests and 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 impeded the growth of God’s Kingdom in Israel for
predominantly worldly reasons.
There were others, however, the Pharisees and their
Scribes, who resisted, and tried to thwart the coming and flourishing of God’s
Kingdom in Israel, by deliberately attempting to take control of God’s
proclamation itself; and by thus poisoning the waters of salvation offered
to Israel, they became close to becoming the subject of these subsequent words of Jesus:
Whoever blasphemes against
the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting
sin,” (Mark 3:29)
Rejected by God as leaders of His people, their hope of salvation lay in the saving death and resurrection
of Him whom they had refused to acknowledge as Messiah sent to teach, and
failed to recognize as beloved Son sent to save.
People of God, today, liberal governments and all those ‘woken’
ones who proclaim their version of a new world, realm, or whatever, 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 for the punishment of such world-wide
hatred for all that is truly spiritual, the Bible encourages us -- along with
all worshippers of the one God -- to expect, God’s saving punishment for
the maintenance of mankind’s eternal calling.
God’s People today are not always -- and certainly not necessarily
-- satisfied by any assumed awareness of their leaders’ oneness with God’s
desires and wishes for His Church and
people. They aspire and try to follow their
leaders’ teachings in the name of Jesus faithfully and whole-heartedly, and
conversely, they can and do expect from those leaders some appreciable measure of sure spiritual guidance,
which appears to be hardly satisfied by, indeed to be strangely lacking in, Synodal
questioning for answers from all and sundry, as if our moral problems were not matters
of Mother Church’s teaching authority, but rather a sort of search for the
latest Covid (=sin) variant.
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, including
the ‘trained’ government officials sent now to ‘comfort’ the bereaved, the
lonely, the worried, the puzzled, the despairing …. with what? Top echelon teachers and guides even 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.
However, Christian spirituality -- the only
authentic food for the divine fulfilment of the human soul -- is way above, and totally beyond, even the
very best of such intellectual endeavours.
Today, many Catholics and Christians allow – or suffer -- themselves
to be persuaded, overwhelmed, by such ‘worldly wisdom’ and its messengers. Even more sadly, however, too many Catholics
today 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 and worldly comfort, in a world that offers no future
hope, no promise of peaceful inheritance.
There is, dear friends in Christ, 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.
Let us rejoice in, give whole-hearted thanks for, such beauty and such truth.
