4 October 2020 – What more can I do?
Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43
The Jewish people looked on themselves as the Vineyard of the Lord, God’s Chosen People. In today’s first Reading, God speaks to his people in great pain because they have proven to be so ungrateful. Many a parent today might utter the same cry as they experience ingratitude from one of their children.
“What could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done ? I expected it to yield grapes. Why did it yield sour grapes instead.”
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to his hearers, the scribes and Pharisees, about the parable on the Vineyard. These same scribes and Pharisees have rejected God’s Son.
Overall the readings speak of the rejection that our Heavenly Father experienced from his chosen people. Today we are God’s chosen people – we are the tenants in the vineyard – I am a chosen daughter / son of God. A day will come when I too will have to give an account of my stewardship. Today’s reading remind me that I should ask what kind of fruit am I producing?
Does God and the things of God come first in my life?
Am I aware of God’s constant love and kindness towards me?
Do I return God’s love by the love I have for others?
Do I show them the same kind of love, forgiveness and compassion that God reaches out to me, again and again.
If not, today is the time to start again…
Edited from a Reflection of Fr Eddie Deeney, SMA
Click on the play button below to listen to an alternative homily from Fr Tom Casey SMA