27th Sunday – October –05, 2008
Isaiah 5:1-7
Philippians 4:6-9
Matthew 21:33-43
Jesus told more stories than the most teachers. His stories are called parables. Parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. For all practical purposes the parables of Jesus fall into two categories: window parable and mirror parable. Window parable means a verbal window through which we can look to get an insight into God or God’s kingdom. Eg. -- The good shepherd, The lost sheep etc. Mirror parable on the other hand is a story that acts as verbal mirrors. They give us an insight into ourselves. In listening to Jesus People see themselves.
First reading and the gospel become mirrors of our life.
Why? and how?
In our first reading prophet Isaiah describes God’s disappointment with his vineyard, which is his Chosen People, Israel. Instead of yielding good grapes it yielded only sour grapes. They did not produce the right yield. Therefore God removed its protection.
We see that in the parable of the rebellious farm managers in today’s gospel, who enjoy the benefits that are available to them as managers but withhold the benefits that should go to the landowner. They were not ready to be responsible and accountable to the owner.
It summarizes the the biblical story of salvation.
It teaches that Jesus is son of God.
It teaches us that apostles are the new leaders of God’s people.
It finally teaches us about God’s great patience and our own accountability to God.
From this we can learn a lot about ourselves and how we stand in relation to God. First we see human PRIVILEGE. Like the managers of the vineyard, everything we have is a privilege and not a merit. This is what we mean when we say that everything is God’s grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Another word for this is privilege. Life itself is a privilege which can be taken away from any of us at any time. Privilege comes, however, with RESPONSIBILITY. We are ultimately responsible and accountable to God for the way we use or abuse our God-given privileges. God has given us all we need to make a judicious use of all our privileges, yet we retain the ability to abuse it. This is called FREEDOM. The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, as it is called, is a parable on the misuse of human freedom. Let us today pray for the wisdom and the courage never to abuse our privileges but rather to make a good use of all the privileges and opportunities that God gives us.
