It is God’s Church
The 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 8, 2023
www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com
predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673
Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43
We have been hearing parables and lessons about workers being sent into the vineyard, which is a symbol for God’s realm. During the past few weeks, we’ve heard responses from people who did not want to work in the vineyard as God wished. Today, Isaiah speaks of the vineyard saying at first that it was a place of promise and rest, a place where the inhabitants would grow in joy and would reap the blessings of caring for the land. Isaiah certainly meant to show that it was God’s vineyard, the House of Israel. He adds that God saw that the people of Judah had mistreated his land, and God was displeased. Because of that, God intends to make the land infertile as a response to human action. This is a tough saying that is meant to be a threat.
Jesus also offers a threat to Israel. Those who mistreat the vineyard will have it taken away from them and given to others who will appreciate it fully. In this case, the landowner of the parable sends his only son to help the people see the resource they have, but they kill him and take the land for themselves. The moral of the story for us today is that the current vineyard, the church, is not ours. We are stewards of it; we are to appreciate it; we are not the owners, and it can be taken away from us. These are sobering statements.
The Church is currently engaged in a four-year long Synod to help bring about a more collegial style of being church so that there can be shared decision making at all levels, while retaining some uniformity and control at the top. This alteration of style is like a paradigm shift because it means that the Pope is not acting like the strongman in Rome making decisions for the whole church. He realizes the days of a one-size-fits-all does not work in a universal communion. Instead, he is engaging his bishops and the people of God in a collegial way of discussing how we need to talk with one another and discern what is most helpful for the salvation of souls. This requires the church to adjust its expectations and its levels of participation.
During this time, which produces fear and anxiety, you will hear news reports from some people who act as if they own the church and that they have the right solutions. They speak declaratively and loudly. That ought to make us sit up and think about who owns the church, for it belongs only to Jesus Christ. Some people declare who should not be admitted into the church, and while we may have various opinions on who is welcome at Christ’s table, the universal church is enlarging the space of our tents. These parables serve as reminders that God is active, engaged, and involved, and God is bringing about a reality that might feel foreign to us. We must put our tightly held opinions aside for this month of prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us about what God intends for this vineyard. Whether we hold an opinion or not, God remains the concerned landowner and is working for the best results for the people of goodwill to get along, work together, and worship the owner of the vineyard.
For some, it is a frightening time; for others, it is a time of hope and renewal; for still some other, they may feel welcome in a place that has long excluded them. We must figure out how we are to pray together in this time of communal journeying. Let’s go into it with positive regard with our best intentions set forward. If you have anxieties and confusion, know that is okay. Let’s talk about it. I want to be able to hear you too. Throughout this process, it is reassuring to know that we are going through this together, to the praise of glory of God, our loving vineyard owner. May we always follow that calming phrase: In God we trust.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Jonah 2) Set out for the great city of Nineveh and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah made ready to flee to Tarshish away from the LORD.
Tuesday: (Jonah 3) The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you." So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD's bidding.
Wednesday: (Jonah 4) Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry that God did not carry out the evil he threatened against Nineveh. He prayed, "I beseech you, LORD, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
Thursday: (Malachi 3) You have defied me in word, says the LORD, yet you ask, "What have we spoken against you?" You have said, "It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, And going about in penitential dress in awe of the LORD of hosts?
Friday (Joel 1) Gird yourselves and weep, O priests! wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! The house of your God is deprived of offering and libation.
Saturday (Joel 4) Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there will I sit in judgment upon all the neighboring nations.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 10) "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
Tuesday: (Luke 10) Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?
Wednesday (Luke 11) Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
Thursday (Luke 11) Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,'
Friday (Luke 11) “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house.
Saturday (Luke 11) "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed." He replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."
Saints of the Week
October 9: Denis, bishop and martyr, and companion martyrs (d. 258), was the first bishop of Paris. He died during the Decian persecutions by beheading at Montmarte, the highest hill in the city. Lore has it that he picked up his head after the beheading and walked six miles while giving a sermon. Denis was sent to Paris to bring Christianity and was thereby called, “The apostle to the Gauls.”
October 9: John Leonardi (1542-1609), was a pharmacist’s assistant before studying for the priesthood. He became interested in the reforms of the Council of Trent and gathered laymen around him to work in prisons and hospitals. He contracted the plague while ministering to those who were sick. He founded the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God to care for the sick.
October 12: John Beyzym, S.J., priest (1850-1912), was Ukranian-born, entered the Jesuits, and petitioned to work among the people of Madagascar who had Hansen’s disease (leprosy.) Since the lepers lived in remote shanty buildings with no windows or facilities, Beyzym worked hard to improve their living conditions, build a hospital, and a church. He died after contracting the disease.
October 14: Callistus I, pope and martyr (d. 222) was a slave of a Christian who put him in charge of a bank that failed. He was jailed and upon his release became a deacon and counselor to Pope Zephyrinus. He became the first overseer of the official Christian cemetery that was eventually named after him. When he was elected Pope he introduced humanitarian reforms. He died during an uprising against Christians.
This Week in Jesuit History
- October 8, 1871. The Great Chicago Fire. Most of the city was destroyed, but it missed Holy Family, the Jesuit parish, as the fire turned north thanks to the prayers of Fr. Arnold Damen. The fire lasted three days; 250 were killed.
- October 9, 1627. Jansenius left Louvain for Salamanca to foment antipathy against the Jesuits and thus prevent Philip IV from giving the Society a large college in Madrid. The theological faculty at Salamanca were hostile to the Society.
- October 10, 1806: The first novitiate of the Maryland Mission opened as ten novices began their Long Retreat under the direction of Fr. Francis Neale (himself a novice who had entered the Jesuits that day.)
- October 11, 1688: King Louis XIV forbade all correspondence and interchange between the French Jesuits and Fr. Thyrsus Gonzalez, the Spanish General Superior of the Society.
- October 12, 1976: The murder in rural Brazil of Joao Bosco Burnier, SJ, who was shot and killed by soldiers for protesting the torture of two poor women.
- October 13, 1537: At Venice the Papal Nuncio published his written verdict declaring that Ignatius Loyola was innocent of all charges which had been leveled against him by his detractors.
October 14, 1774: A French Jesuit in China wrote an epitaph to the Jesuit mission in China after the suppression of the Society. It concludes: "Go, traveler, continue on your way. Felicitate the dead; weep for the living; pray for all. Wonder, and be silent."
No comments:
Post a Comment