TWENTY SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
8th October 2023
Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43.
The parable of today’s gospel passage reminds us of God’s expectation from us as his beloved children. God created us out of his own love and expects us to share this love with those around us. Like the landowner in the parable, who planted a vineyard, and beautified it by fencing it round, digging a winepress in it and building a tower expecting a bountiful harvest; God created man, endowed him with freedom and a heart to love, and expects him to share this love freely with everybody. Each time we fail to share this love, we become similar to the tenants in the parable who refused to make good use of their tenancy. They have nothing to offer except their wickedness.
As children of God we are capable of sharing his love in the world. Every human person is a bundle of possibilities. We undermine God and ourselves when we fail to live out our full potentials. Like the wicked tenants who felt that killing the son of the landowner will enable them acquire the property, we deceive ourselves thinking that full human potentials lies in material acquisition. Fullness of potentials lies in sharing the love of God in the world.
Sharing of love is difficult for a heart that is wounded. St Paul offers us a solution in the second reading. He wants us to pray for a good heart. According to him: “if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving”. He also prescribed the practical steps of filling our minds with ‘with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise’. We can only meet God’s expectation and our full potentials when we share his gift of love with people around us.
Fr Anthony Ekpunobi, CM.
