GESTURES OF GENEROSITY AND INGRATITUDE (Sunday, October 5, 2014)

World Teachers' Day

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Is 5:1-7

Phil 4:6-9

Mt 21:33-43

The Lord had a vineyard that have all its materials that will surely bring a good produce of grapes. All is well with it but of one thing - it just yielded wild grapes. The outcome cannot be caused by God for he provided everything that is good in His vineyard and so it is expected that its fruit will be of good quality so, we can safely assume that there is another person who is responsible for the fruits but of wild grapes.

In the Lord's cry of a one who had been mistreated unjustly despite of the good things He provided for His people, the favored ones were not even with the Lord as we can see with the bad produce they have caused, they were the cherished plant by God yet He just sees bloodshed and outcry from it instead of judgement and justice that were expected as the fruits of God's vineyard.

In the Gospel it became clear that the responsible for this "wild grapes" were the chief priests and the elders of the people themselves. They were the tenants of the vineyard. They were supposed to care for the vines that bear fruits but we have wild grapes instead. God is sending His prophets or emissaries from time to time but they were either get beaten, killed, or stoned by these tenants. It is a total rejection of God's rectification to them. In Jesus' parable, the chief priests and the elders of the people answered their fate by the time they had done the killing of Jesus. The Lord will surely strip-off their right over the vineyard and will give it to other tenants who will give the produce at the proper time. By this time, Jesus Christ will be the cornerstone - the first stone of His Kingdom which is the Church. 

Then what was St. Paul is saying and what can we draw from his pastoral letter to the Philippians? It must be clear that everything is provided for us by God and what'll just do is to pray and not be anxious for anxiety compromises the hope we have in God who provides everything for those who asks Him in prayer. If we pray with no anxiety at all, God Himself will secure His peace in us for He know that it is hard to ask Him without us being anxious of our prayer and what we pray for in our prayer. God knows that it is hard for us to differentiate the prayer of ours from the content of our prayer. Anxiety is fear and is contrary to hope, and prayer is of hope. If our attitude of praying is of hope and never of anxiety or fear or worry, then the peace of God will be with us in Christ Jesus, especially in our hearts and minds. We are taught by St. Paul to keep in mind the things of judgement and justice. To meditate on these things which St. Paul enumerated will make the God of peace be with us as we also keep on doing what we have learned and received and heard and seen in the tenants of God like St. Paul. Again, a prayer said in anxiety is no prayer at all for anxiety reflects the state of the worrisome problem whereas prayer is the solution and a step of hope on Heaven's ladder reaching God. So prayer is a law where you just state your case in hope to God and it's just that. When you pray with anxiety, you state your case in fear which is a violation of the law of hope for prayer is hope and a gesture of hope. An anxious prayer somehow shows ingratitude to God's unquestionable generosity.

It is evident that God's want is so simple: to return the materials we received from Him in judgement and justice. Let us never return it with bloodshed and outcry instead. If we attend to the Church with an utmost care for its materials of sanctification and its utilization then surely, no doubt, God will have His good fruits of grapes - our sainthood. Let us be good tenants of the Lord's vineyard!

Jesus I trust in You

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

Mary H. Distributist