GOD’S VINEYARD
October 8, 2023: A Reflection for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Matthew 21:33-43
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. (Mt 21:34)
I don’t know how many of you have noticed the sign on I-10 announcing Sonoita to be the viticulture area of our high country. As most of you know, there are many vineyards and wineries just fifteen or twenty minutes from us. We know how the soil, the temperature, everything about where we live is conducive to growing grapes. It seems, to some, that it was made for that very purpose.
In the past few weeks, the Sunday Gospels have been about God’s Vineyard. The vineyard that Jesus came to tend, to nurture, to love into growth, and spend himself caring for and encouraging into every little bit of growth the vines could manage until, at last, rich bunches of grapes are ready for the harvest and to be transformed into wine. We are that vineyard. Each and every person he created.
Another name for this vineyard is the Kingdom of God. We are the precious vines his love has planted in the soil of his mercy. He takes great care to plant us near streams of living water, his Spirit, to help us grow into children of God, who respond to his invitation to follow Jesus wherever he leads.
The Father nurtures, prunes, fertilizes, weeds and waters. He knows every little tendril reaching out for sun and life, each cluster of flowers, soon to become fragrant grapes and pressed into the wine that cheers human hearts, as it says in the psalms.
It is all about the tremendous love of God and his desire to be one with us. To help us grow into people who become the love of God to everyone with whom we come in contact. To receive the mercy of God and share it with our sisters and brothers.
A lot happens in a vineyard and I’m sure if the vines could speak, they would tell us that the sun is really hot sometimes, that it is not pleasant to be pruned. But maybe they would add to this, that when their magnificent clusters of fruit shine in the sun, when they give themselves to the one who cares so tenderly for them, their reason for being is fulfilled. They are gifts of God.
And so are we. We are gifts to the God who made us, and to one another. Vineyards are special places. God’s vineyard is a workshop of mercy, of love and trust. A workshop where we learn how much we are loved in our yes to God’s care. May we all grow together into the love and mercy who is God.