Greetings to everyone ! Happy Sunday! The Lord’s Day !
Greet everyone with a smile!
Our theme for today’s reading is: Appreciation
Here is our first reading:
The Song of the Vineyard
I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?
Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its fence,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.
I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it.”
The vineyard of the Lord Almighty
is the nation of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are the vines he delighted in.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
(Isaiah 5:1-7)
The vineyard is the house of Israel, the chosen people, and in our time now, that is you and me, we Catholic and Christians. We call ourselves Catholic and Christians but only in name. We don’t really obey The Lord wholeheartedly.
The Lord is disappointed, we don’t appreciates the great things He is doing for us.
And here is our Gospel reading for today:
The Parable of the Tenants
“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
“The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, 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, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. (Matthew 21:33-43)
Here is a commentary from Saint Joseph Sunday Missal:
“In this parable, the vineyard is Israel. The tenant farmers are the Jewish religious leaders. The son is Jesus Christ, sent by the property owner (God) to get his share of the grapes. This son, God’s envoy, is thrown out of the vineyard (Jerusalem) and killed. The point is the presumption of the tenants. They want to act like owners of the vineyard though they are just stewards. Matthew’s point is evident: Since Israel reject Jesus as the Messiah, the Kingdom of God will be handed over to the Gentiles.”
That is why Saint Paul, who is a Jew, with pain in his heart said these words:
“I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah.”
(Romans 9:2-5)
For us now, let us show our great appreciation for receiving the Word of God. For us here in the Philippines, let us show our great appreciation for being the first Country here in Asia to be Christianized. But most of all let us not only be Christian in words but in deeds.
God’s love will be offered to everyone. Let us show The Lord our appreciation.