Unconditional Love
Listening to the Spirit
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Listening to the Word
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, 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 said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.
Reflection
Let me begin this reflection on the gospel for this coming Sunday by quoting the Exultet that we usually sing during the Easter Vigil: “What good would life have been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer? Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave, you gave away your Son. O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a redeemer!” This Exultet expresses beautifully our wonders and gratitude for God’s amazing love and care for humankind.
The stories about the owner and his vineyard both in the first reading and the gospel reveal to us this wonderful care and love of God for humankind. The first reading tells us a story or rather a beautiful song of a landowner who has a vineyard. The landowner has a precious vineyard planted on a fertile hillside. He spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines, within it, he built a watchtower and hewed out a wine press. The vineyard is so special to its owner just like we in the eyes of God the owner of our life. Certainly, just like the owner expects a good product from his vineyard, God also wants us to be fruitful. Unfortunately, when the owner looked for the crop of grapes, he found only wild grapes (Cf. Is 5;1-2). But God never gives up. He continues to take care of us, his vineyard. He even sent laborers to make sure that the vineyard would produce good fruits.
In the gospel, Jesus tells us another story about a vineyard. The vineyard seemed to be productive or produce much fruit, but the workers were so greedy that they did not allow the owner to harvest the fruits. They even killed the owner’s servants. The last action of the owner was difficult for us to understand. He sent his own son to the vineyard, thinking that the tenants would respect his son. But the son was killed in his own vineyard. How can a father send his own son to the criminals? “Would you have done the same? Wouldn't you or I have said, “I will keep my family away from these criminals”?
The thoughts and ways of the owner of the vineyard are really different from ours. The book of the prophet Isaiah says it beautifully, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:9). God’s ways are higher, unreachable and cannot be comprehended by our thoughts.
Indeed, God’s ways are higher than our thoughts because His ways are the ways of love and compassion. God’s love is always without limit and conquers death. That is why He sent his only begotten son to live with us, though we are not perfect. God sent his own son, Jesus into the trap of human life not because life is perfect, but because love is. He was rejected and killed but has become the cornerstone for all of us.
“What good would life have been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer? Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave, you gave away your Son. Let us welcome Jesus, who always comes into our vineyard, our hearts, and our lives. Let not our hearts be possessed by the greedy tenants (sins) that take away the fruits of joy, peace, kindness, love, etc.
Reflection Questions
Gospel Reflections
Allowing Jesus to Change Us
Who Is Jesus for Me? From Encounter to Mission
