20141005 GRATITUDE MUST BE EXPRESSED IN THANKSGIVING AND SERVICE
First
reading Isaiah 5:1-7 ©
Let
me sing to my friend
the
song of his love for his vineyard.
My
friend had a vineyard
on
a fertile hillside.
He
dug the soil, cleared it of stones
and
planted choice vines in it.
In
the middle he built a tower,
he
dug a press there too.
He
expected it to yield grapes,
but
sour grapes were all that it gave.
And
now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and
men of Judah,
I
ask you to judge
between
my vineyard and me.
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?
Very
well, I will tell you
what
I am going to do to my vineyard:
I
will take away its hedge for it to be grazed on,
and
knock down its wall for it to be trampled on.
I
will lay it waste, unpruned, undug;
overgrown
by the briar and the thorn.
I
will command the clouds
to
rain no rain on it.
Yes,
the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts
is
the House of Israel,
and
the men of Judah
that
chosen plant.
He
expected justice, but found bloodshed,
integrity,
but only a cry of distress.
Psalm
Psalm
79:9,12-16,19-20 ©
The
vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
You
brought a vine out of Egypt;
to plant it you drove out the nations.
It
stretched out its branches to the sea,
to the Great River it stretched out its
shoots.
The
vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Then
why have you broken down its walls?
It is plucked by all who pass by.
It
is ravaged by the boar of the forest,
devoured by the beasts of the field.
The
vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
God
of hosts, turn again, we implore,
look down from heaven and see.
Visit
this vine and protect it,
the vine your right hand has planted.
The
vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
And
we shall never forsake you again;
give us life that we may call upon your name.
God
of hosts, bring us back;
let your face shine on us and we shall be
saved.
The
vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Second
reading
Philippians
4:6-9 ©
There
is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God
for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much
greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in
Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, fill your minds with everything that is true,
everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we
love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of
praise. Keep doing all the things that you learnt from me and have been taught
by me and have heard or seen that I do. Then the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel
Acclamation Jn15:15
Alleluia,
alleluia!
I
call you friends, says the Lord,
because
I have made known to you
everything
I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
Or cf.Jn15:16
Alleluia,
alleluia!
I
chose you from the world
to
go out and bear fruit,
fruit
that will last,
says
the Lord.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Matthew
21:33-43 ©
Jesus
said to the chief priests and the elders of the people, ‘Listen to another
parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it
round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants
and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the
tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed
one, killed another and stoned a third. Next he sent some more servants, this
time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way. Finally he sent
his son to them. “They will respect my son” he said. But when the tenants saw
the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him
and take over his inheritance.” So they seized him and threw him out of the
vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he
do to those tenants?’ They answered, ‘He will bring those wretches to a
wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the
produce to him when the season arrives.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never
read in the scriptures:
It
was the stone rejected by the builders
that
became the keystone.
This
was the Lord’s doing
and
it is wonderful to see?
‘I
tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a
people who will produce its fruit.’
GRATITUDE
MUST BE EXPRESSED IN THANKSGIVING AND SERVICE
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: : ISAIAH 5:1-7; PHILIPPIANS 4:6-9; MATTHEW 21:33-43
http://www.universalis.com/20141005/mass.htm
The vineyard of the Lord
is the house of Israel. Even though Israel was nobody, God was merciful and generous
towards them. They were a motley crowd and slaves of the Egyptians.
Yet God “brought a vine out of Egypt; to plant it you drove out the nations. It
stretched out its branches to the sea, to the Great River it stretched out its
shoots.”
Indeed, even when the
Israelites had been repeatedly unfaithful to the Covenantal promises,
He sent them His prophets to call them to repentance. He is full
of mercy and compassion. God is untiring in calling us to
repentance. As if it were not enough, He gave us His only Son. Hence,
the Lord lamented, “And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I ask
you to judge between my vineyard and me. 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?”
We too are the vineyard
of the Lord. God
has chosen us in spite of our unworthiness to be His choicest vineyard.
He has blessed us in so many ways. He has been generous to us. We
have been delivered from our sins and freed from our bondages. We feel
reconciled and renewed. We have been healed of our brokenness. Some
of us have been healed of illnesses that we thought was impossible to
overcome. He has been kind and generous to us. He has
forgiven us again and again for our infidelities.
So what is our response
to His love and mercy? Have our lives changed? Has our faith
increased? Has our love for Him and our fellowmen deepened? Indeed, today, the scripture readings
warn us of the consequences of the failure to respond to His grace and
mercy. There is a danger that we might transform the costly grace
of God’s mercy and forgiveness in the death of His Son to that of cheap grace.
By failing to undertake changes in our faith and life, we would be no better
than the Israelites. This was the indictment of the Lord.
We can feel with the
Lord in His pain and grief over the infidelities of His children. We can imagine the disappointment of
God at our lack of cooperation with His grace. As the prophet said, “He
expected it to yield grapes, but sour grapes were all that it gave.” And,
instead of treating God’s only Son with respect, they killed Him instead.
Those of us who are parents and teachers will know how to feel with God when we
see our children or students not appreciating the sacrifices we have made for
them and their ingratitude. As parents and guardians, we only want the
best for our children because we love them. But when they throw the grace
of God to the winds, we cannot but feel sad for them.
With this regret
and sadness, there is also a warning of the consequences of our
irresponsibility and negligence. If we do not appreciate and value what has been given, we
will suffer the consequences of our sins. This is what the Lord said to
Israel, “Very well, I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I
will take away its hedge for it to be grazed on, and knock down its wall for it
to be trampled on. I will lay it waste, unpruned, undug; overgrown by the
briar and the thorn. I will command the clouds to rain no rain on it.”
And indeed, this was what happened to Israel. Their nation was destroyed
by the Assyrians and Babylonians. We will suffer the consequences of our
sins and ingratitude as the Israelites did when they were sent into
exile. The leaders were punished for failing to exercise their
office properly. Only in the exile did they begin to realize their
mistakes, albeit too late.
This was the same warning
given by the Lord in the gospel. We will be stripped of all our
blessings. “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease
the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him when the
season arrives.’” We are blessed by God so that we can bless others with the
blessings we have received. God’s blessings are never for us only.
If we do not use our blessings for the good of others and for the glory of God,
we will only condemn ourselves.
How do we show our
gratitude for the gift of salvation in Christ? Christ has shown us the way to
life and love. He has healed us and blessed us. Genuine gratitude
for His mercy must be seen in praise and thanksgiving. What is the best
way to give thanks and praise to God if not to go and tell of the great things
that the Lord has done for you. What does this mean? How can this be
done?
Firstly, we need to give
testimony to the Lord. We need to testify to others what He has done
for us. Evangelization is not about proselytism or indoctrination.
It is simply a sharing of what the Lord has done for us.
This is what is most needed in our times. With secularization and the
absence of the Sacred, it is critical that we need to let others know that the
God we worship is a living and loving God. If the world has lost faith in
God and become insensitive to His presence, it is because religions have been
so institutionalized that they lack creativity and dynamism. More
often than not, it is reduced to a set of laws, doctrines and rituals.
The inter-personal relationship is lost and so is the presence of God. It
is therefore vital that those of us who have experienced a God who is so near
to us in our hearts, in our minds and in our daily life must render testimony
to His love, power and mercy.
That is why the Church
has never been short of miracles especially of healing. From the time
of Christ to the early Church, the gospel was never proclaimed in mere words
but with miracles, which are called signs of wonder and power. We read in
the New Testament how the apostles continued the healing ministry of Jesus,
testifying to His resurrection and Lordship. Many were converted on
account of the healing works of the apostles in the name of the Lord.
Even after the ceasing of the charismatic gifts in the early Church because of
heresies, the Church continued to exercise the charismatic gifts in the hermits
and in the founders of monasteries and convents. Today, we have come full
circle again, for the charismatic gifts are not the privilege of the few or
even the religious but they belong to the People of God, priests, religious and
laity. Thus, it is important that we must never stop sharing with others
what the Lord has done for us in our lives. The greatest joy we can give
to the Lord is to let others know about His love and mercy. This is
because He loves us all and wants as many people to come to Him as
possible. Isn’t this the case with the Novena to Our Lady? It draws
many people because of the letters of petitions and thanksgiving.
Our Lady wants all people to know the love of her Son and to come to Him for
salvation.
Secondly, giving testimony
to Christ is more than mere words and testimonies. What is even more
important is the change of lifestyle. What is the use of claiming that
we have visions of our Lord and our Lady or that He has healed us of this and
that ailment, when there is no radical change in our conduct? In the case
of Peter and the apostles, especially St Paul, we could see the radical
conversion in their lives, from one of self-centeredness and fear of suffering
to one of selfless service and only fear of God. So the best testimony of
what God has done for us is the transformation that has taken place in our
minds and hearts. This is the best and most effective testimony.
This was how St Paul gave testimony to God. He would often speak of his
previous life which was one of merits and pride based on self-righteousness and
folly. But now he only lived from Christ and is totally dependent on the grace of
God. Salvation is no longer his doing but purely cooperation with
the grace and mercy of God.
Thirdly, we must be
people of faith and thanksgiving. If God has given us all that we
need and protected us all these years and has shown His mighty arm at work in
our lives, it would not be right that we continue to doubt His love and divine
providence again and again. Rather, we must in faith continue to believe
in His wisdom and in His divine plan for us. Our joy is to do the will of
God and embrace His will even at times when we do not understand His ways and
His thoughts.
Finally, we must make
Jesus the cornerstone of our lives. In all that we do, our lives must
now be rooted in the Lord, especially in the celebration of the Eucharist and
reconciliation and contemplation on the Word of God. It is this
daily nurturing on the Word of God in prayer and the reception of the Eucharist
that we can grow in faith.
In this way, we can put on the
mind of Christ in all that we do. We must be positive people and live
a virtuous life of love and purity. We are expected to live a life
of justice and charity because as the prophet said, the Lord “expected justice,
but found bloodshed, integrity, but only a cry of distress.”
Let us be exemplary in
our Christian life and set good examples to others. We must be people of praise in words
and in deeds. Let our positive lifestyles, and love be a source of
edification for others to desire to come to know the Lord. Let us repent
of our complacent lifestyles and sinful ways and turn back to the Lord.
With the psalmist, we pray, “God of hosts, turn again, we implore, look down
from heaven and see. Visit this vine and protect it, the vine your right hand
has planted. And we shall never forsake you again; give us life that we may
call upon your name. God of hosts, bring us back; let your face shine on us and
we shall be saved.” In this way, we can live fruitful for ourselves and
others.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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