Today’s Gospel presents us with a rather sobering picture. Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard owner who carefully prepares his vineyard, provides everything necessary for it to flourish, and then entrusts it to the care of tenants. Yet those tenants become greedy, selfish and violent. They forget that the vineyard belongs to someone else, and they behave as though they are its owners.
The vineyard is an image of God’s people, and the parable invites us to ask ourselves a very important question: What are we doing with the gifts God has entrusted to us?
Everything we have ultimately comes from God: our lives, our faith, our families, our talents and the opportunities we have been given. Even the Church itself is not our personal possession. It belongs to Christ. We are called to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us, rather than behaving as though we can do whatever we please without reference to Him.
The tenants in the parable make a terrible mistake. They want the vineyard’s fruits without acknowledging the owner. And perhaps we can recognise something of that attitude in ourselves. We can be very happy to receive God’s blessings, but less enthusiastic when He asks something of us in return. We want His mercy, but sometimes resist His call to repentance. We want the comfort of our faith, but may be reluctant to make the sacrifices that faith demands.
God sent His servants to the tenants, and finally He sent His own Son. Jesus is speaking about Himself. He knows that He will be rejected by the religious leaders and put to death. Yet the rejection of the Son will not be the end of the story. As Jesus says, the stone rejected by the builders will become the cornerstone. Through His death and Resurrection, Christ will establish the foundation of a new people of God.
This is also a reminder that God is remarkably patient with us. He sends His grace into our lives again and again. He calls us back when we wander away. He offers us forgiveness when we repent. In the Sacrament of Confession, we encounter that mercy in a particularly beautiful way. But we must never presume upon God’s patience. His mercy is a gift to be received with humble and repentant hearts, not an excuse to carry on regardless.
The first reading from the prophet Isaiah also speaks of a vineyard. God has tended it with loving care, yet it produces wild grapes rather than the good fruit He desires. It is a powerful image of the disappointment God experiences when His people fail to live according to His commandments.
So what fruit is God looking for in our lives? He looks for the fruit of genuine charity, forgiveness, prayer, faithfulness and holiness. He looks for hearts that are willing to turn away from sin and grow closer to Him. He looks for Catholics who do not merely attend Mass, but allow the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to transform the way they live throughout the week.
As we celebrate Mass today, let us remember that we are not the owners of the vineyard. We are its tenants, entrusted with a precious gift. One day, we shall stand before the Lord and give an account of how we have lived.
May Our Blessed Lady, who received God’s gifts with perfect humility and obedience, help us to be faithful servants of her Son. And may the Lord find in each one of us a vineyard bearing abundant fruit: fruit that will last for eternal life.