COLLECT: “ALMIGHTY EVER-LIVING GOD, WHO IN THE ABUNDANCE OF YOUR KINDNESS SURPASS THE MERITS AND THE DESIRES OF THOSE WHO ENTREAT YOU, POUR OUT YOUR MERCY UPON US TO PARDON WHAT CONSCIENCE DREADS AND TO GIVE WHAT PRAYER DOES NOT DARE TO ASK. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Is 5:1-7; Ps 79:9,12-16,19-20; Phil 4:6-9; Mt 21:33-43
“BEAR FRUITS THAT BEFIT HEAVEN”.
One local musician from my tribe played a song that says there are some people in this world whom you try to help, or you do something good for them, and all they return to you as a reward is wickedness or hatred (“A tengzu ka, a nensaala, fo na maal’o velaa velaa a, e de faa san yoo”).
We can comfortably apply the words in the song above to the way God handles and deals with us. God, indeed, right from the time of Adam and Eve, has been doing a lot for humanity. He created Adam and Eve, planned and planted a beautiful garden, filled with an abundance of everything for them to take care of it. There was abuse and disobedience here. This continued up to the time that God called the Israelites. Abuse of God’s call and disobedience became more pronounced shortly after the call of the Israelites, and it extended throughout that period, even though “time and again God offered the Israelites covenants and through his prophets taught them to look forward to salvation” (Cf. Eucharistic Prayer 4). God indeed had such a great love for the Israelites, and he still has such a love for all humanity.
In allegorical terms, our scriptures this Sunday present humanity to us as a vineyard of the Lord of the Host, which he cares for and does all the necessary and needed things (cf. First and Gospel Readings). He leases it to tenants and goes on a journey. This was common among farmers in Israel, particularly in Canaan.
The tenants represent the religious leaders of the Israelites. The two batches of servants that the landowner sends to the tenants, whom they seize, beat and kill some of them, represent the earlier and latter prophets that God sent to Israel. The Son that the landowner eventually sends to the tenants, who are seized, thrown out of the vineyard and killed by them, represents Jesus the Messiah. The landowner represents God the Father.
Naturally, the main aim of business is to make maximum profit. However, if a businessman employs people at his enterprise to work for him to achieve his aim and later on realises that the workers are more “reducing and destructive” agents than assets, no shrewd businessman will continue to keep a tenant/laborer of this kind.
God chose and called the Religious leaders of Israel and Judah as tenants to work in Israel and Judah as his vineyard. God expected and looked for mercy, love and right from these religious leaders, but all he saw was bloodshed; he expected “justice, but hark, the outcry!”
In a wider sense, the Church is God’s vineyard, and he has done all the necessary things for it and has given it to us to care for. We are therefore the tenants God has given this vineyard to care for. God expects good fruits at harvest time. Do we produce good fruits, and are we ready to give some good fruits to God? We seize, beat and kill “God’s prophets and son” when we do not live up to expectations as Christians.
We can live up to expectations as Christians if we keep on doing what we have learnt and received and heard and seen, not only from St. Paul, but from our Lord Jesus Christ, by doing *“whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and whatever is gracious”*. We also have to always think about and do the things that are excellent and praiseworthy (cf. Second reading).
My dear friend, the lesson today’s scriptures give us is that in whatever or whichever situation we find ourselves, we should see ourselves as tenants or labourers of God. It is God’s opportunity or chance given to us as custodians or caretakers to act responsibly and always be aware that there will certainly be a day of accountability, when God will expect good fruits from each one of us. Therefore, wherever I find myself and whatever I do in life, that is where God will expect me to make an account of that.
It is sad and unfortunate that sometimes some of us use our positions given to us by God to abuse others, especially those entrusted to our care. For instance, the priestly or religious life is a call of God, and he entrusts people into our care as priests and religious to take care of them. We are to pastor them and, in the end, bring them to God at the time of harvest (judgment. It may be good for us (Priests and Religious) to reflect on how we handle our people and ask ourselves if we are actually producing good fruits for God, or if it is “bloodshed” and “outcry” we are producing?
In the marriage life, which is the first divine call of man and woman to come together in love to produce fruits of their love (children), the partners are entrusted to the care of one another and the children (if God blesses them with children). Neither partner should see him/herself as boss over the other and the children and, for that matter, abuse and maltreat them. You should know that at the end of time (vintage time) you will render accounts of your stewardship as a marriage man/woman regarding how you perform in your marriage life.
How are bosses handling their subordinates in the offices? As a boss, are you unfair in your dealings with your workers/subordinates? Are you abusing them? Have you seen your position as a divine call and the subordinates as people entrusted into your care and protection? Do you consider yourself a custodian of the office and the workers, and not the owner? What about the workers/subordinates? Do you consider yourselves as tenants being employed in the office/work place to do good and diligent work and produce good fruits? Are you a worker who thinks and behaves as if the work is yours and, for that matter, you do whatever you want, and at the end you are expected to be paid? When your salary is delayed a bit, or when there is a little displeasure from your workplace, you resort to strike actions or even violence?
In line with the above, *we think of people who are blessed with good employment. They are put there by God to use them to produce good fruits for others in the world to enjoy*. For instance, God put them there to help others and also to bring development to uplift humanity. It is sad that in some instances, people in top offices rather use their offices and systems to abuse and exploit other people. We quickly call to mind issues and cases of bribery and corruption. The perpetrators of this cancer of bribery and corruption are mostly those with good employment and in good offices; they have very good or “fat” salaries, yet they engage in bribery and corruption. What good fruits are such people producing? Beware of the day of accountability or Judgment.
State and public funds have not been properly used but misdirected into wrong channels, hands and pockets. People are usually contracted to execute public or state projects, and all they produce at the end is shabby and shoddy work. Two things are accountable for this: (a) People who are contracted to do work are not, in most cases, given the right estimated amount to carry out the project, all because of ten or is it fifty per cent (10% or 50%) of the amount going into wrong hands and pockets to “oil” their mouths and stomachs, or (b) sometimes the right estimated amount is given to the contractor, but he/she embezzles huge sums of it, and at the end no work or shabby and shoddy work is carried out*. Are such contractors or people who finance the contractors producing any fruits, let alone good fruits?
We also have Traditional leaders and Landlords abusing and exploiting the people, as well as the system that God has entrusted into their care. Remember, the day of accountability will certainly come, and you have to account for what you have done on earth as a steward or tenant of God in his vineyard.
Let us once more reflect and meditate, along with St. Paul, on the second reading that “whatever is true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and praiseworthy”; we should think about that and keep doing that. This will help us produce good fruits for God. Stay blessed.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SUNDAY, ON THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ‘THE RESURRECTION, THE ASCENSION, THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ASSUMPTION, AND THE CORONATION ’. (WE PRAY FAITH, HOPE, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE OF A HAPPY DEATH AND TRUST IN MARY’S INTERCESSION) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “GRANT US, ALMIGHTY GOD, THAT WE MAY BE REFRESHED AND NOURISHED BY THE SACRAMENT WHICH WE HAVE RECEIVED, TO BE TRANSFORMED INTO WHAT WE CONSUME. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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