{"id":2286,"date":"2017-10-08T11:50:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-08T15:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2286"},"modified":"2017-10-08T11:50:21","modified_gmt":"2017-10-08T15:50:21","slug":"27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/27th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 5:1-7
\nPsalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
\nPhilippians 4:6-9
\nMatthew 21:33-43<\/p>\n

For the Israelites, the use of the image of the vineyard in relation to God was a familiar one.\u00a0 Isaiah speaks of the vineyard owner who planted his vines \u201con a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted his choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 The vineyard owner did everything expected of an owner and<\/em><\/strong> he did it well.\u00a0 What did it get him?\u00a0 Wild grapes.<\/p>\n

Of course, the point is to see God as the vineyard owner.\u00a0 God is the creator of the world.\u00a0 He set the universe as we know it in motion.\u00a0 He brought order to chaos.\u00a0 He has provided his people with everything needed.<\/p>\n

At the time Isaiah wrote the first reading, (c. 8th<\/sup> Century B.C.) the Israelites would have seen the vineyard as the kingdom of Israel.\u00a0 The problem was that many of the people had fallen away from the one true God and were worshipping either no god at all or false gods.\u00a0 They had in effect become wild grapes that bore no fruit.<\/p>\n

This is where things are at when Isaiah writes as a prophet of the Lord, \u201cWhat more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 God had done everything needed but the people had not done their part.<\/p>\n

So, the Lord says he will let the vineyard become a ruin.\u00a0 Why should God do all the work that goes into a vineyard, if the people are not going to do their part?<\/p>\n

So, God withdraw his divine protection and allowed<\/em><\/strong> the Israelites to be defeated by their enemies.\u00a0 God didn\u2019t switch sides.\u00a0 He just let the Israelites make their own choice and suffer the consequences.<\/p>\n

Those who had fallen away failed to realize that they continually needed God\u2019s care.\u00a0 They wanted complete freedom.\u00a0 God gave it to them but if they wanted to live a life that ignored God\u2019s ways, they were on their own.<\/p>\n

Yet, God never really completely abandoned them.\u00a0 He kept sending prophets and religious leaders.\u00a0 How did many of the people respond?\u00a0 We see it in today\u2019s gospel.\u00a0 They \u201cseized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The people in the parable became greedy.\u00a0 The vineyard owner had down everything expected of him to establish a vineyard before leasing it to tenants.\u00a0 As was standard business of the day, in payment for their use of the vineyard, he was to receive a fair portion of the produce.\u00a0 There is no mention that he wanted more than his due but the tenants got greedy and wanted it all for themselves.<\/p>\n

God has given us this awesome world with the light and the dark, the plants, the trees, and the animals.\u00a0 He made it all ordered and beautiful.\u00a0 He has given us, as humans, dominion<\/em><\/strong> over it all.<\/p>\n

Have we made good with what we have been given or are we wild grapes?<\/p>\n

There definitely are wild grapes today.\u00a0 There are people who do not do as God asks of us.\u00a0 In a violent way, we see a wild grape in the shooting in Las Vegas this week.\u00a0 58 people killed and over 400 injured.\u00a0 What happened is not what God wanted but the assailant was a child of God, one who had gone astray, but still a child of God.\u00a0 His behavior made him a wild grape.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know why he shot all those people.\u00a0 We may never know.\u00a0 Maybe he was mentally ill.\u00a0 Maybe he was misguided.\u00a0 Maybe he was harboring a grudge that filled his heart with anger that kept him feeling God in his heart.<\/p>\n

The same can be true in any other mass shooting, stabbing, bombing, or vehicular attacks.\u00a0 Nothing justifies what these assailants do.\u00a0 What we need to work on is to do what God asks of us.\u00a0 What is God\u2019s will for us?<\/p>\n

What is it that God asks of us?\u00a0 God has given us the scriptures and the prophets to help us know what he asks of us.\u00a0 Are we listening or are we like our ancestors who beat and killed the prophets?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the vineyard owner sent his son thinking \u201cthey will respect my son<\/em>\u201d but they did not.\u00a0 They killed him too.\u00a0 They crucified him.\u00a0 His name was Jesus.<\/p>\n

I really wish I had some answers as to why these attacks happen but I don\u2019t.\u00a0 The shooting in Las Vegas was the worst shooting ever in the United States and we have no idea why it happened.<\/p>\n

So, what are we supposed to do now?<\/p>\n

The same thing we should have always been doing.\u00a0 Live as Jesus teaches us.<\/p>\n

This means following the two greatest commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor.<\/p>\n

In the midst of what happened in Las Vegas (and any other violent attack), we can experience a range of emotions.\u00a0 For the people in the crowd that night, fear was probably the most powerful emotion at the time and rightly so.\u00a0 They feared for their lives.<\/p>\n

Now there is sadness at the loss of life and for the wounded.\u00a0 And it is not just those struck by bullets.\u00a0 Those present in the crowd but not shot may live with post-traumatic stress.\u00a0 They might even feel guilt, asking themselves why they were not injured when so many others were.<\/p>\n

There are also the families of the victims, forever effected by this.\u00a0 What about the people working security at the concert or the hotel staff wondering if they missed something.<\/p>\n

Even people who were nowhere near the concert may experience fear when they go to similar events in the future.<\/p>\n

What can we do to try and make sure violent attacks like this happen?\u00a0 We need to live like Jesus and we need show Jesus to others.\u00a0 Hate won\u2019t help here.\u00a0 We need to love like Jesus.\u00a0 We need to forgive like Jesus.\u00a0 When there is hurt in our hearts, rather than to respond to the anger, we need to bring Jesus to the world.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20 Philippians 4:6-9 Matthew 21:33-43 For the Israelites, the use of the image of the vineyard in relation to God was a familiar one.\u00a0 Isaiah speaks of the vineyard owner who planted his vines \u201con a fertile hillside; he spaded it, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘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":[82,10],"tags":[349,350,351],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-AS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286"}],"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=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2290,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions\/2290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}