by Fr. Ed Liptak, SDB
The two Old Testament readings this 27th weekend, Isaiah and Psalms, paint a stark warning. The friend about whom Isaiah speaks is God who diligently cared for his vineyard, Israel. He tended it lovingly and expected a fine harvest to make equally choice wine. What he got instead were sour grapes. God asked, “Was there anything more I could have done?” And in disappointment He said, “I will let my vineyard be trampled … turned to ruin.” Isaiah was not predicting. He was giving the people of Judah the reason why he, other priests and political leaders had been sent into captivity, the nation and the Jewish religion left in shambles.
Psalm 80 was written independently, but the Church tied its refrain to Isaiah’s, “The vineyard of the LORD is the House of Israel,” to intensify the same awful truth about which Isaiah warned.Evil people must pay a price, sometimes a terrible price, for neglecting the kindness and goodness of God.
St Paul uses an opposite strategy. He emphasizes the good. To the church at Philippi, with poetic and uplifting urgency he pleads, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, 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.” Paul then urges the Christian faithful whom he had taught to hold dearly to what pleased God. “Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Finally, the Lord Jesus, uses for us his amazing talent of teaching through parables. Again, God’s vineyard is his church, and what kind of gathering it must be is determined by Him. Those put in charge of the vineyard are the religious leaders of that day. Dissatisfied with them, God sent a new set of caregivers. Think of Jesus and his Apostles. The old set of guides are obsessed and angry. They dispose of the new leaders, and Jesus their foreman, they kill. Jesus was poised at that time, ready to go up to Jerusalem, there to be crucified. It is the old leaders whom God would displace.
Today we must not be complacent, choosing what we believe, placing the Church in danger. God, through Jesus Christ our Truth, not we, determine what kind of Catholic we are.