Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 2, 2011 - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Isa 5:1-7; Phil 4:6-9; Matt 21:33-43,25]Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people......I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.
I grew up in an area of Louisiana that is still very agricultural. Tenant farming is still practiced there. Sometimes the owner simply rents out the land for a given amount; and sometimes the owner receives a percentage of the profit. The arrangement in the parable in today's gospel would have involved the actual crop itself. The owner expected to get some of the fruit. We are not told that it was a bad year or that the tenants were bad farmers. We are told that the tenants just wanted the crop for themselves. They forgot that they were tenants and began to act as if they were owners. This is the crux of the story! (Jesus appears to have "adapted" an all too commonly oppressive arrangement for another purpose.)
All ministers (ordained or non-ordained) are called to stewardship and not to ownership of the Lord's vineyard. Jesus was very critical of the religious leadership in Jerusalem. The parable was addressed to the "chief priests and elders of the people" after he had entered Jerusalem. In essence, he tells them that the problem is not in the vines (as in the image from Isaiah in today's first scripture) but in the vine growers! They were acting as if they were accountable to no one and their conduct was leading others astray. They acted like owners and not like tenants/stewards.
Leadership in our American Catholic community comes in many forms. There are bishops, priests, religious and laity who are doing a great job 'and some who aren't. However, there is a sobering statistic that needs to be noticed. If former Roman Catholics in the USA were organized into a single religious community, they would be the second largest religious denomination in the USA! What will the leader/stewards be able to say to the Owner: "We don't know where the grapes have gone?" The crop loss is terrible and the Owner is not going to be happy about it. All of us are called to participate in the harvest of the Lord's vineyard and this parable should give us all something very important to think about. AMEN