27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
First Reading: Isa. 5, 1-7
Second Reading: Phil. 4, 6-9
Gospel: Mt. 21, 33-43
by: Br. Cesar Y. Granada [cjm]
The Gospel this Sunday traditionally points to the seemingly resolve of God’s revealing act and offering of salvation to Israel and the latter’s insensitivity and lack of response. In the end, they were killed and the vineyard leased to a new set of servants “who will give him the produce at the proper times.” (Mt. 21, 41)
As the new tenants of the vineyard of the Lord, the same question and situation is posed unto us. After receiving the revelation of God in Jesus Christ in the Catholic Faith, are we ready to listen and respond to the signs of the times as we live our Faith in the modern world of gadgets and information technology? Sadly, our Faith remains in the four corners of the Church and confined in a hasty one hour mass inside the Church or if more convenient; in the shopping malls every Sunday. The vineyard which the Lord entrusted to us in the message of love, mercy and compassion became a mere nostalgia of the past and becomes viable only if we need it to advance our own agendas. The Revelation of God and His decrees as lived by Jesus in the Gospels became mere propositions of Faith devoid of relevance to our daily life. As I meditate on the Gospel today, I cannot but recall Pope Francis’s message in Evagelii Gaudium no. 7, “I never tire of repeating the words of Benedict XVI which takes us to the very heart of the Gospel, ‘Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’”
We need to return to that primordial event of our Faith, namely to encounter again Jesus as a person, an event. This encounter can be broken down to three aspects. First, rediscover Jesus in the Gospels. Re-read the gospels as if you were part of the very scenes where Jesus talks, walks and breathes his very person as a human person. There’s no substitute for reading the Gospels. This is the primordial record of God’s love and compassion in the most human way as He became one of us, like you and me in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As we read the Gospels, let us re-trace the steps of Jesus, his life and teachings and to make it relevant to us, let us listen to our Tradition as it interprets, explains it in various times and situations. More importantly, may it spur in our hearts that excitement to know Jesus for the first time, and build a personal relationship that will be part and parcel of our very being. Secondly, to encounter Jesus as a person means building a relationship with Him. As we mentioned above, to meet Jesus in the Gospels calls us to believe in Him, to Hope in Him, and love Him. These virtues will become incarnate in our very hearts if we will let His message speak to us personally, as if talking to us face to face. This relationship is not a God-creature sort of relationship but rather a person to person event-relationship. With the aid of our imagination, let us imagine Jesus talking to us as if present in the very moment of our contemplation of His words, so that we can relate to Him in a very personal manner. Lastly, to encounter Jesus as a person and event, calls us to action. After meeting Him in the Scriptures inside the great tradition of our Catholic Faith, the joy of meeting God in Jesus through our Faith will overflow to others naturally. In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis tells us, “Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of the others.” (#9)
The good news today reminds us that God set us as the new servants of the vineyard. As we take care of our lives, do about our responsibilities and daily tasks as sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, armed with the experience of Jesus that is incarnated in our hearts and minds, this will lead us hopefully, with the grace and mercy of God to fruitful produce of good works and joy that radiates in us and around our lives.
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