o The workers who received the same salary even having
worked different number of hours.
o The two sons to whom their father asked to go to work
in the vineyard.
o Today it is about the vineyard itself.
Ø With these parables the Lord wants to reach the heart
of the leaders of his people Israel, leaders who supposedly represent the authority
of his Father on earth.
Ø With this parable the Lord wants to win again the
heart of those men for whom he will give up his life on the cross.
Ø Maybe we have to apply all of this to our own life,
the life of our community and to the Church.
FIRST READING Is 5:1-7
We may consider three parts in this
passage:
- The song of
the vineyard addressed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
- The
vineyard that his friend has planted
- Vineyard which his friend has cared for,
he has surrounded it with all sorts of protections and tender love.
- And however he has not found any good fruit in it.
- The
owner of the vineyard asks the inhabitants of Jerusalem
- What else could I have done for my vineyard that I have not
done?
- Why does it give bitter fruits instead of grapes?
- The
owner says that he knows what he will
do
- He will remove its protection, the fence
- It will be trampled down by all, it will be food for animals
- It will be like a ruin
- He will not take care of it as he has done until now
- And he will say to the clouds not to rain over it.
- As
a conclusion the prophet Isaiah says
- This vine is the house of Israel, the people of Judah, both
his cherished plant
- He wanted to find judgment, justice and wisdom and did not
find any of these
- Instead he found violence.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 80, 9,12,13-14,15-16,19-20
THE
VINEYARD OF THE LORD IS THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL
A vine from Egypt you transplanted
You drove away the nations and planted it
It put forth its foliage to the Sea
Its shoots as far as the River.
Why have you broken down its walls
So that every passer-by plucks its fruit
The boar of the forest lays it waste
And the beasts of the field feed upon it?
Once again, O Lord of hosts
Look down from heaven and see
Take care of this vine
And protect what your right hand has planted
The son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you
Give us new life, and we will call upon your name
O lord, God of hosts, restore us
If your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.
In the liturgy of
this 27th Sunday we read four verses of psalm 80.
In the first the
psalmist speaks to God to remind him that he drove a vine out of Egypt, and how
much he cared for it.
In the second one
the psalmist asks God why he has changed , why he has abandoned the vine.
In the third the
psalmist asks God to come and visit us, come and cure us, take care again of
us.
The fourth is the
promise made to God in the name of the vine, promise of conversion, of change
of life.
GOSPEL Mt 21:33-43
Ø
Jesus tells the leaders
of his people this parable, and they understand that it is addressed to
them.
Ø
This parable is
very much like the first reading from Isaiah.
Ø
When the time comes to collect the fruits, the
owner sends his servants, but the tenants mistreat them and even kill some of
them.
Ø
Then the owner of
the vineyard sends his son, and they also kill him out of the vine, like Jesus
who will be killed outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem.
Ø
Jesus switches
from agriculture to construction, from the vineyard to the cornerstone which
the builders rejected.
Ø
The stone
rejected and which becomes the cornerstone
Ø
I tell you that
the Kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce
fruits
Ø
Everything that
we read in the Eucharist or in the Bible is there for us, even though the
authors did not know us, but the Father who inspired them knows us.
Ø
This is the same
message that we have been receiving for the last two weeks, salvation is given
to us freely, but we need to take good care of it, because we may lose it.
SECOND READING Phil 4:6-9
Ø
Paul says to his
community, do not worry for anything at all
Ø
Tell to God your petition, your need and then
remain at peace, accept the peace of God
Ø
Peace which
according to Paul surpasses all understanding
Ø
Then Paul invites
his community, each member of it to keep on doing what is good
Ø
And the peace of
God will be with us.
The more we went into that
immense sea of waters the more my spirit plunged into the immense sea of God ,
when I looked at myself within the heart
of my God and Lord more clearly than in
a mirror. God was so pleased in this way of considering his infinite greatness
that often times He made me feel the tenderness of his most holy arms with
which His holy Majesty pressed my soul within his sacred heart. This was the
cause of that inalterable peace I enjoyed that the fact of not getting bored in
the trip so long and so difficult. The immensity of the sea reminded me of the
immensity of God and those skies so wide brought to my mind the immense spaces
of the glory of the saints. The narrowness of the ship, the creaking of the
woods and the continues noise of the pumps, which never stopped day and
night, reminded me first, of the tightness of the poor condemned souls in the
narrow prison of hell. And the creaking of woods and the continuous noise pf
the pumps brought to my mind and the
cries and the gnashing of teeth with the confusion of the condemned suffer. The
Lord granted me the grace that none of these things made me suffer in
considering heavens and hell. Blessed be God, the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who pays so abundantly the graces which he himself gives. Venerable María Antonia
París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters 159.
No one who
hasn't experienced a major earthquake can have the slightest idea of what it's
like. It's not just the moving or heaving of the earth and the sight of
utensils and furniture sliding from one end of the room to the other. If that
were all there was to it, then anyone who has sailed on rough seas has seen the
like happen on a ship. But there is a great deal more to an earthquake than
that.
Horses and
other four-footed animals are the first to sense the quake; it's awful to see
them freeze in their tracks, their legs braced like table-legs, so that all the
beating and goading in the world couldn't budge them. Then all the birds
--chickens, turkeys, doves, parrots, parakeets, etc.—begin cackling, shrieking,
crying, thrashing about, and flailing their wings. Next there is a deep,
subterranean rumbling, and everything begins to sway, and you can hear the
creaking of timbers, doors, and walls and the sound of pieces falling from
buildings. This is accompanied by a change in the electrical field that throws
compass needles completely off.
St.
Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography
530-31
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A. El camino abierto
por Jesús. PPC 2012
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo) 2007
LA BIBLIA, traducción tomada de la página web del Vaticano.
LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, Luis Alonso Schökel.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.
