27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A, Year II)
Community Word: True disciples of Jesus respond to His calling to fruitfulness.
Theme: True disciples of Jesus respond with fruitfulness when they go and bear fruit that remain.
Promise: “Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:9b)
Reflection:
In the Gospel of the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus tells us of yet another landowner who planted a vineyard, adapting the image of the vineyard that the prophet Isaiah used in the First Reading. (Isaiah 5:1-7) However, the vineyard in St. Matthew’s Gospel is more than just a vineyard story. Here, Jesus directly addresses the people involved – the landowner, the tenants, the servants and the son.
He tells us not only of the unfruitfulness of the vineyard, but of the “unfruitfulness” of the tenants whose sin is the sour and bitter fruit of their lives. When harvest time comes, they not only refuse to give the landowner’s share, they also maltreat and even kill some of the servants he sent (Old Testament Prophets). And when he sent his own son (Jesus), thinking, ‘they will respect my son’ (Matthew 21:37), they get even bolder and plot to kill him. “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance” (v.38).
In the Second Reading this Sunday, St. Paul explains to the Philippians the rewards of being fruitful, as he exhorts us to, “Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Then the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9). In doing this we are following and surrendering ourselves to Jesus, and, as St. Paul himself tells us, “it is no longer us who live, but Christ who lives in us,” and we too can live Jesus and bear fruit for, “true disciples of Jesus respond with fruitfulness when they go and bear fruit that remain.” Indeed, as Christ’s disciples we are expected to live out our lives in Christ, and to follow His ways as His witnesses to others.
The story of the vineyard is a parable and by definition, we can personalize its interpretation. We can bring to it a new understanding as we let God’s word break through our defenses. We can venture into seeing the cast of characters two thousand years ago, and see in it how Jesus saw the future in our own situation today. The parallelism is uncanny.
We can look at our Community today as the vineyard the Lord has set up. It is the image of the chosen people, the work of the Lord, the joy of his heart. In it he tries to form and nurture us through our formation programs to bear abundant fruit in personal sanctity and ministry to his people. The Lord continues to send his servants (prophets), as in the Old Testament. He continues the work of the Spirit through people who live out and persevere in their Christian faith. He is still calling us to risk everything, as did the persecuted servants in the Old Testament. But we can also ask, if we identify with the landowner, whether we have entrusted our vineyard to wretched men – evil tenants who are using God’s people (the vineyard) for their own benefit rather than leading them to God (the landowner). As a consequence, the people are not bearing the kind of fruit they are meant to bear. Worse yet, leaders like these are isolating the people from God’s Son with their own self-serving laws. They reduce the vineyard to rubble, making it a ruin, overgrown with thorns and briers (worldly values and desires). Or, could we be the wicked tenants ourselves, opposing Jesus and refusing to give the owner his share and keeping the fruit for our own selfish use.
If we are to produce good fruit for the Lord we need to ask him for strong aversion to sin, sins that displease the Lord – our lack of charity, our critical and judgmental spirit towards others, our impatience, resentment, unforgiveness, etc – and need to reject. For our failure to do so will cut us off from the vine, as unproductive branches are cut and put into the fire. “I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, to make it bear even more” (John 15:1-2). But if we do live in him, God’s love will permeate our lives. Our minds will be filled with all that is true, honorable, upright and pure, good and praiseworthy, fruits that God expects from us (Philippians 4:8). And as we live a fruitful life, we receive the peace of God, which “surpasses all understanding and will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). When our minds are filled with God’s goodness, we will bear fruit for his kingdom. Then we receive His promise this week: “The God of peace will be with you.” (Phil 4:9b).
Prayer:
Father, you understand, all too well, what it is to yield a bitter harvest. You know how we feel when our efforts end in failure or worse, when they are cruelly sabotaged. Cherish us, loving Father, especially when we have little to show for ourselves; pity us when our yield is bitter. Sensitize our hearts that we may grieve with you in your disappointment. I now yield to you and ask you to drive out all that is opposed to your will and keep me from your kingdom.Amen!
Reflection Questions:
1.Can you identify attitudes that have hindered your ability to bring forth the fruit of love, justice and mercy that our Father is looking for from you?
2.Make a resolution with your group to give good fruit to the Lord each day. Make it workable and simple e.g. serene acceptance of frustrating traffic situations, a minor illness or discomfort, a smile or friendly word to a stranger, etc.
This Week’s Daily Mass Reading Guide:
October 5, 2014 (Sun) Is 5:1-7/ Ps 80:9,12-16,19-20/ Phi 4:6-9/ Mt 27:33-43
October 6, 2014 (Mon) Gal 1:6-12 ; Ps 111 :1b-2, 7-9, 10c ; Lk 10 :25-37
October 7, 2014 (Tues) Gal 1:13-24; Ps 139:1b-3, 13-15; Lk 10:38-42
October 8, 2014 (Wed) Gal 2:1-2, 7-14; Ps 117:1bc, 2; Lk 11:1-4
October 9, 2014 (Thurs) Gal 3:1-5; Lk 1:69-75; Lk 11:5-13
October 10, 2014 (Fri) Gal 3:7-14; Ps 111:1b-6; Lk 11:15-26
October 11, 2014 (Sat) Gal 3:22-29; Ps 105:2-7; Lk 11:27-28
“Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ. Read your Bible daily!”
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