Homily for October 8

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Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 
Scriptures for today's Mass 

Audio for homily

If you came here today filled with questions and prayers

about Mexico, Puerto Rico, Las Vegas and our troops overseas,

then these parables about vineyards might not satisfy

what your heart is searching for.

There is a lot of bad news out there.  

In fact, I’m left wondering these days

if there’s any good news at all to be had, to be heard, to be shared.

There’s bad news aplenty out there:

wars, persecution, poverty,

natural and man-made disasters and tragedies

- and political strife on all sides

with little hope of resolution on the horizon.

I’ve heard a number of folks say they’re reluctant

to pick up the daily paper or listen to the news

for fear it will just be more of the same - or worse.

I’ve also heard some folks ask,

 “Where’s God in all of this?

Why doesn’t God do something about all this bad news?”

Well, I have to wonder if God in heaven isn’t reacting just as we are.

Must not God be tired too, weary of all the bad news?

If you and I are distressed by what the world’s come to,

could God be any less disappointed

at what our misguided, bumbling efforts - or our lack of effort -

have generated? produced?  yielded? harvested?

Yield and harvest - huh!

You know, maybe, after all, those ancient vineyard stories

do have something to say to us today.

In the first parable, we are the vineyard  -- and God, the owner,

spared nothing in planting and cultivating us, his vines.

But our yield is often wild and sour

and the parable promises we’ll be held accountable

and pay the price of this failed harvest.

The parable in the gospel recounts the Vinter’s efforts to warn us.

The servants he sends to collect the harvest are the prophets,

but they were ignored and abused.

When finally he sends his own Son (Jesus) -- him they put to death.

Jesus told this story to the religious leaders of the Chosen People,

warning them that unless they were faithful to the Lord’s word,

their inheritance will be taken from them

and given to others - even to Gentiles like ourselves.

But if we are now grafted on to Israel’s vine,

and we are - what is our harvest?

Is our crop sweet and succulent - or bitter and sour?

The daily headlines and our social discourse give the answer here

and we would be wise to heed these ancient stories

and find ourselves in them.

And by now you’re probably thinking that my homily has only added

to all the bad news already haunting us!

But there’s good news in the scriptures today, too.

And that good news is as refreshing as a warm sunny day in October,

just before we wake to fall’s first frost.

It’s as cleansing as a hot shower after a hard day’s work in the garden.

It’s as welcome as a ray of hope that shines, even faintly, in our darkness.

And all this is found in the words we heard from Saint Paul:

Brother and sisters,

have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer,

make your needs known to God.

Then the peace that surpasses all understanding

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, think about these things;
think about whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,

whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious;
if there is anything of excellence, anything worthy of praise,

think about these things.

Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen.
And then God of peace will be with you…

In a time when social discourse grows less and less civil by the day;

when, on all sides, snarky bitterness and name-calling               

regularly substitute for constructive dialogue;

and when mistrust and accusation have supplanted

mutual respect and collaboration:

in such a time St. Paul’s admonition may be the beginning,

indeed may be the only way for us to begin to rebuild

what topples all around us.

Of this I am sure: heeding St. Paul’s advice is, for most of us,

the modest point from which we might begin, with God’s help,

to change ourselves and work towards a personal harvest

sweet enough to be counted as the harvest of God’s grace.

If we do little more than stand at the vineyard’s gate,

pointing fingers at this one or that one,

then we can expect a sour harvest of bitterness to continue.

Only by changing our hearts

can we hope to find change in the world around us.

We go now from the vineyard stories to the Lord’s Table

where the sweetness of the yield of his love for us on the Cross

is poured into cups for us to share

and where the nourishment of wheat fields is baked into bread

and broken for us even as he was broken for us in his sacrifice.

Brothers and sisters, think about these things;
think about whatever is true, whatever is honorable, 

whatever is just, whatever is pure, lovely, gracious;
if there is anything of excellence, anything worthy of praise,

think about these things.

Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen.
And then God of peace will be with you…

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