[Salvation]

 

27th Sunday: Once upon a Vineyard

 



A landowner who planted a vineyard . . . and went on a journey

Is 5: 1-7

Phil 4: 6-9

Mt 21: 33-43

The Word for Sunday:

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/100514.cfm

On his 21st birthday, I encouraged one of my nephews to try a nice glass of wine.  He had already sipped from the chalice at Mass during the reception of Holy Communion so I knew that he had at least tasted this ancient and ever new “fruit of the vine.”  But I knew that he had never really taken the time to enjoy the flavors of a fine vintage.

 

I personally enjoy the reds so I offered him what I thought would be a good example. He took one sip and that was about it. The expression on his face was somewhat surprising and maybe a bit purposely over the top.  

 

I said, “Maybe you need to try a white wine.  They’re not as strong.”  Still it seems that he will likely never be much of a wine connoisseur.   His younger brother, now also 21, had a very different reaction.  “Ok, that’s enough!” I thought with him.  

 

The taste of wine is somewhat subjective, I suppose.  Depending on your personal likes and dislikes, the food you are eating, and the vintage itself, you enjoy what you enjoy in the end. But, there is no doubt that the vineyards of today compete mightily with each other to produce the finest vintage and taste possible.

 

Our readings this Sunday once again speak of a vineyard but in more harsh terms than we’ve heard the last two weekends.  The prophet Isaiah poetically speaks of a vineyard, carefully tilled and pruned but what the vineyard master hoped for “the crop of grapes” turned out to be “wild grapes.”  Maybe that glass of wine I offered to my nephew came from those wild grapes.

 

Then God speaks an ultimatum: “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard . . .” God expected that his people would be faithful and produce rich fruit by their loyalty to his covenant.  Yet instead God decides to, “take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!” Ouch!

 

Historically, the city of Jerusalem during the time of Isaiah had been destroyed by the Babylonians so their experience of destruction was interpreted as God’s judgment for their unfaithfulness and idolatry.

 

Likewise, after the earthly ministry of Jesus was completed and the new Way laid its foundation through the Apostles’ ministry, in the year 70 AD, the city of Jerusalem was once again destroyed by the Romans and along with it the sacred Temple where Jesus himself had preached.  The early Jewish converts to the new Christian Way had been expelled from Temple worship and were now left ever more vulnerable and unprotected for rapid persecution.  Unlike Judaism, this new sect was not tolerated by the Roman authorities and the legendary persecution of Christians was about to become history.  

 

As the Gospel this Sunday speaks of this vineyard, the chosen people of God, Jesus warns in his story about their well-known abominable treatment of the Old Testament prophets.  They “seized” them, they “beat” them, they “stoned” and “killed” them.  Yet God continued to attempt a renewal of the covenant as he drew closer to the sending of his own Son.  Hoping, according to the story, that at least his son would be respected and treated well.  Yet, like the prophets of old, the tenants said: “Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance . . . they threw him out of the vineyard” (Calvary outside the walls) “and killed him.”

 

But, all is not lost for now God will “lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”  (The gentile communities who embrace the faith and the Jewish converts now left on their own.)

 

Lest we become anti-Semitic, however, remember to whom Jesus was speaking in this story: the “chief priests and elders of the people.”  Those self-righteous leaders of the people who rejected Jesus and his message and led the people far from the covenant.

 

Still, the warning as such is also at the same time a word of mercy.  God doesn’t give up.  He continues to offer and invite everyone to his vineyard.  God has not rejected the Jewish people as a whole.  The “Jews” did not kill Jesus with foresight and intent. A race of people cannot be blamed for the sins of others. The Church continues to see them as the first chosen by God.  Yet, the expansion of the covenant has come through stages as it were - from one people to many.

 

What this reminds us about is that we too must not take our faith for granted. The vineyard of our Christian faith is ever as precious as what we hear in Isaiah and Matthew this weekend.

 

God has supplied the tools we need to remain faithful and to come to know him more and more.  The Sacraments of our Church, the richness of our prayer tradition, the call to service especially to those in great need, the support of our brothers and sisters in the faith, our heroes the Saints who plead for us and through whose example we can learn.  

 

What we must provide is a willingness to do what needs to be done to bear good fruit. All is grace as has been said. And indeed God has provided in and through his Church what is needed to be a holy people.  Maybe not perfect but a great work in progress for sure.  

 

As Mother Teresa has said, God calls for our faithfulness not our success.  How is your vineyard doing?  Is the wine a joy to drink or has it gone bad?

Almighty and ever-living God,

who in the abundance of your kindness

surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you,

pour out your mercy upon us

to pardon what conscience dreads

and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.

[Salvation]

Vultus Christi

Dixit Dominus Domino meo

Sunday, 05 October 2014 12:49

The Lord said to my Lord

Psalm 109 figures prominently in today’s Holy Mass and Divine Office. At Mass, we receive Psalm 109 from the very lips of Our Lord Himself:

And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying: What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say to him: David’ s. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word; neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. (Matthew 22:41–46)

This evening’s Magnificat Antiphon, graced with an exquisite 4th mode melody, repeats the words of Jesus:

Quid vobis videtur de Christo? * cujus filius est? Dicunt ei omnes: David. Dicit eis Jesus: Quomodo David in spiritu vocat eum Dominum, dicens: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis?

What think ye of Christ Whose Son is He * They say all unto Him The Son of David. Jesus saith unto them How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand?

Christ Enthroned

An allusion to the very same Psalm 109 recurs at the very end of Saint Mark’s gospel: “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19). Again, on the morning of Pentecost, Saint Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, preaches the mystery of the risen and ascended Christ saying:

David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Ac 2:34-36)

In the New Testament

Psalm 109 is the ground of some of the important Christological doctrines of the New Testament. Saint Paul alludes to it in Romans (8:34), Ephesians (1:20), and Colossians (3:1). We discover Psalm 109 four times in the Letter to the Hebrews.

In the Liturgy

From the time of the Apostles, Psalm 109 has been a mirror wherein the Church contemplates the mystery of Christ. The Church, by her use of Psalm 109 in the sacred liturgy, continues Jesus’ own understanding of it passed on to the Apostles. Deep in her collective memory the Church cherishes the incomparable seventh mode antiphon that, for centuries, has opened the evening sacrifice of praise on Sunday: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Dede a dextris meis (Ps 109:1). The Church hears the voice of Christ repeating for her what the Father said to him on the day of resurrection: “Sit at my right” (Ps 109:1).

Christ’s Divinity, Humanity, Kingship, and Priesthood

The medieval monastic psalters place a Christological title at the beginning of each psalm. These old titles of the psalms — there are many series of them — say, in some way, “Here is the mystery of Christ in this psalm. Contemplate his face as in a mirror, and hear in this psalm the sound of his voice.” The old Cistercian series of psalm titles has this for Psalm 109: “Of the divinity, the humanity, the kingship, and the priesthood of Christ.”

Bitter Sufferings and Resurrection

Going through the psalm, verse by verse, we see in verse 1 Christ enthroned at the right hand of the Father, an image that recurs in the Gloria of the Mass and in the Te Deum. In verse 3 we hear the voice of the Father saying, “From the womb before the daystar I begot thee” (Ps 109:3). Verse 4 is the declaration of Christ’s eternal priesthood: “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech” (Ps 109:4). Verses 5 and 6 describe the triumph of Christ over the powers of death. In the last verse of the psalm the whole mystery of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection is summed up: “He shall drink of the torrent in the way — the torrent of his bitter sufferings — therefore he shall lift up his head — in the glory of the resurrection and ascension” (Ps 109:7).

In Life

How does all of this relate to life? When we begin to see the face of Christ in the psalms as in a mirror, we can begin to relate them to our own journey as well. We are all of us called, in some way, to “drink of the torrent in the way” (Ps 109:7). At the same time, our indefectible hope is that like Christ and with him, we too shall “lift up our heads.” All that is said to Christ by the Father is spoken to us. All that was accomplished in Christ our Head must fulfilled in his Body and in each of his members. And so we live from one Holy Mass to the next, and from one Hour of the Divine Office to the next, singing the psalms of David, the psalms of Christ, as we advance.