27th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
‘He will lease the vineyard to other tenants’
(photo courtesy of Eimear McGuinness)
The parable of the vineyard is ‘a Bible within the Bible’, presenting in veiled form the history of salvation. It’s a story of a God who is at once a trusting father, a patient mother and a just judge. The owner of the vineyard trusts the tenants to get on with the task of cultivating it. He shows immense patience by giving them chance after chance to respond to his appeal to produce a harvest. They don’t listen. In the end, his patience runs out and he leases the vineyard to other tenants. We are the tenants today. God gives us ample opportunity to produce fruit, but there does come a moment of reckoning when we must account for our stewardship and those who have ears to hear should listen. True fruitfulness begins in the heart and mind when we stand close to the Lord of the vineyard and fill our minds and hearts with all that is true, noble and good. Then if our minds and hearts are right we will be able to love what He loves and do what He does. That in essence is what bearing worthwhile fruit means. It is the outward demonstration of our inward disposition. Thoughts are roots; words are leaves; actions are fruits.