GOD’S LOVE FOR HIS PEOPLE

XXVII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Isaiah 5:1-7

In the first reading of this Sunday’s liturgy, taken from Isaiah, we can a song of love - the Lord’s love for his vineyard. The vineyard is the people of God. With love and care, God did everything possible to have the best vines planted to harvest the best grapes and produce the finest wine. However, it yielded only sour grapes. And the owner of the vineyard asks himself: “What could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done?” It sounds as if he wasted his time and money. In the end, he made the difficult decision of abandoning the vineyard: “I will lay it waste, unpruned, undug; overgrown by the briar and the thorn.” The prophet Isaiah applies the parable of the vineyard to the people of Israel, who, despite being chosen and loved by God, produced no good fruits. According to the prophet, the Lord “expected justice, but found bloodshed, integrity, but only a cry of distress.” Instead of service and obedience, the people of Israel responded with defiance and revolt.

The song of the vineyard can be applied as well to the Church and humanity in general. God has offered us his love, and we have despised his love. Time and again, we turn against God, throwing him out of our lives and taking his place. In the parable of the wicked tenants, Jesus takes the song of Isaiah as his point of departure. The vineyard belongs to the Lord, who entrusted it to tenants but they behaved as if they were the owners. That is the big sin - a sin that comes from Adam and Eve:  as human beings, we refuse to acknowledge God’s love and care and behave as rebels, intent on taking God’s place and becoming the owners of the universe. Like the owner of the vineyard, God sent messengers and prophets that were ill-treated and even killed. In the end, he sent his only Son, his beloved, in the hope that they would respect him. They didn’t and killed him instead. With this parable, Jesus goes through the history of salvation that ends in his death at the hands of the leaders in Jerusalem. The parable presents also a stern warning of judgement and punishment given out to the rebels who tried to take over the vineyard. 

If we do not produce fruits of love worthy of God’s loving mercy for us, we will be thrown out of the vineyard.

God of hosts, turn again, we implore,

  look down from heaven and see.

Visit this vine and protect it,

  the vine your right hand has planted.

And we shall never forsake you again;

  give us life that we may call upon your name.

God of hosts, bring us back;

  let your face shine on us and we shall be saved. 

(Psalm 80)