{"id":1467,"date":"2014-10-05T14:01:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T18:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1467"},"modified":"2014-10-05T14:01:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T18:01:07","slug":"respect-life-sunday-27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/respect-life-sunday-27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Respect Life Sunday – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 5:1-7
\nPhilippians 4:6-9
\nMatthew 21:33-43
\nOctober 5, 2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Isaiah speaks of his \u201cfriend\u201d who worked diligently to create the perfect vineyard.\u00a0 He did everything one would expect, he spaded it, cleared the stones, and planted the best vines he could find.\u00a0 He built a watchtower and a wine press.<\/p>\n

What happened?\u00a0 He got a bunch of wild grapes.\u00a0 Wild grapes are a pain.\u00a0 Years ago my dad had a handful of grape vines on his property that he kept trimmed.\u00a0 They were there before he brought the property and grew a lot of good grapes but eventually became too much work for the amount of grapes he got.\u00a0 So he pulled them out.\u00a0 Now, around fifteen years later, there are still no planted vines but there are still wild ones that I have to keep cutting back.\u00a0 The vines on the wild grapes grow like crazy but seldom bear grapes and if they do, bear tiny little grapes.<\/p>\n

They need to be pruned to bear good fruit.<\/p>\n

Of course the story is really about God.\u00a0 God created the earth as his \u201cmasterpiece\u201d and then gave it to us.\u00a0 We could not have asked for a better creation but what have we done with it.<\/p>\n

Do we keep ourselves pruned in God\u2019s Word, cutting out the parts of our lives that are not in accord with God\u2019s words?\u00a0 Or do we let ourselves grow wild and then wonder why life goes downhill?<\/p>\n

Jesus offers us a similar parable where the landowner does everything of him in setting up the vineyard and then leases out the land.\u00a0 In payment for the lease, the tenants are supposed to give him part of the harvest.\u00a0 This is a normal exchange of goods.<\/p>\n

However, when harvest time comes, the tenants get greedy and want to keep it for themselves.\u00a0 So much so that they murder the landowner\u2019s servants and ultimately even his son.<\/p>\n

The landowner\u2019s servants are like the prophets of the Old Testament who were rejected by the people for preaching a message they didn\u2019t want to hear.\u00a0 Of course, the son of the landowner is Jesus.<\/p>\n

Do we get greedy with what God has given us?\u00a0 Do we use wisely the things before us?\u00a0 It\u2019s not that we can\u2019t use them at all.\u00a0 God has given us much to use but we must use it wisely as part of God\u2019s masterpiece.<\/p>\n

So far, I have spoken of God\u2019s masterpiece as the things we see in nature, the birds, the animals, the land\u2026 but these things, while beautiful, are not God\u2019s ultimate masterpiece.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s masterpiece is life and, created in God\u2019s image, human beings are the ultimate masterpiece.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we lose sight of what it means to be God\u2019s masterpiece.\u00a0 Sometimes we become too focused on ourselves and become greedy, seeking more than our share at the expense of others.\u00a0 Those others are all part of God\u2019s masterpiece and have the same rights as us.\u00a0 We must not take from them what is their share.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we think we get to decide what a masterpiece of life is.\u00a0 We don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

This month is Respect Life month and this year\u2019s theme is \u201cEach of us is a masterpiece of God\u2019s creation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

All human life is a masterpiece.\u00a0 It begins in the womb and ends as we know it as natural death.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it seems inconvenient to some, interfering with their own plans.\u00a0 We can be selfish and don\u2019t want to make sacrifices.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we value the gift of life when we are young but when we get old and tired we want to give up.\u00a0 Our faith knows there comes a point when we don\u2019t use extraordinary means to keep an ill person alive but death should never be hastened and come naturally.<\/p>\n

Respecting life is not just a question of life at the beginning in the womb or at the end when we enter the tomb.\u00a0 Respecting life also means valuing all life in between.<\/p>\n

It means making sure people have their basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter taken care of.\u00a0 This comes from Jesus himself who tells us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.<\/p>\n

What about people with what some call \u201cspecial needs\u201d?\u00a0 There are people with physical needs that might be lifelong or started with an accident or simply from aging.\u00a0 They too are, and always remain, masterpieces<\/em> of God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n

There are people with challenges like Autism or Down\u2019s.\u00a0 Some \u201cfeel sorry\u201d for these people.\u00a0 Sometimes we don\u2019t know what to do to help.<\/p>\n

I know I don\u2019t know what to do to help these people.\u00a0 What I do know from my own encounters is that people with challenges like these are sometimes the happiest and most loving people we see.\u00a0 There lies the real masterpiece of creation, love.<\/em><\/p>\n

May we all have the grace we need to see as God sees, to love and know that \u201cEach of us is a masterpiece of God\u2019s creation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Isaiah 5:1-7 Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43 October 5, 2014   Isaiah speaks of his \u201cfriend\u201d who worked diligently to create the perfect vineyard.\u00a0 He did everything one would expect, he spaded it, cleared the stones, and planted the best vines he could find.\u00a0 He built a watchtower and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Respect Life Sunday – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-nF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}