07 October 2023 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) (Sunset Mass)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

Today’s readings gives us an opportunity to look at our own selves in the way we live our call to discipleship. And this invitation that God gives us through these two readings of today, especially the First Reading and the Gospel, is a reminder for us to check and see how have we tilled the soil and how have we cared for the vineyard which is the vineyard of our lives.

And as we look at the Gospel Acclamation, it gives us an opportunity to unlock the mysteries of what God is revealing to us today:-

I call you friends because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.

The first thing is, dear friends, Jesus calls us friends and He has made known everything that He has learnt from His Father. And you and I are beneficiaries, those who receive that message of Christ and we ought to share that word with one another.

And as we look at the First Reading of today, we come to a realisation that in both stories we see the image of the vineyard.

The First Reading tells us that this friend gave this vineyard and after that this person cared so much to put so many things in place so that the grapes will be sweet. In the same way as well we see in the Gospel that the vineyard owner gave this vineyard to this tennant. And there to we see how much of care is being put in order to ensure that they produce sweet grapes. But what do they find is sour grapes.

I would like to ask you: “Do you like sweet grapes? Or do you like sour grapes?” I am sure most of you would like sweet grapes because the sweet grapes allows you to taste the beauty and the sweetness. And in doing so, if we allow God to allow that to bear fruit in our life, dear friends, we too can taste the beauty and the sweetness of God and doing so we share the beauty and the sweetness of God to one another. But very often if we take a look at our own lives, if we say that it is the vineyard of the Lord, our life is the vineyard of the Lord, the question is: “Are we producing sweet grapes or are we producing sour grapes?” That answer I leave it to you to answer.

Because everytime, dear friends, we need to remember that the Lord has given everything that is possible for us to produce sweet grapes. And by the choices we make, by the encounters we have, by the way we relate to one another, we can allow that fruit to bear sweet grapes or sour grapes. But both coming from the same vineyard.

As I was reflecting on these readings today, dear friends, my two weeks of retreat that I took to go to France was a moment that I was able to find some moment in order to check myself, whether I was producing sour grapes or I was producing sweet grapes.  And in those moments of searching, these moments of discernment, this moment where I try to find meaning and a sense of purpose in where the Lord has called us. And doing so as well, by looking at my own life, because in each and every person, dear friends, if we are producing sweet grapes, we also allow others to taste the sweetness of the grapes of our lives. And if we are producing sour grapes, we also share that burden, that challenges with the people around us.

But as I was reflecting on these two readings, how am I faring in this vineyard of the Lord, I come to this realisation that very often all of us are blessed with that giftedness to produce good and sweet grapes. But the choices we make allow us to produce the different type of grapes that we see.

But the Second Reading of today invites us to go beyond what we see within ourselves. Because all of us have this potential to move from sour grapes to sweet grapes. And it says (the Second Reading, Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians), if says if we want to produce sweet grapes, it says:
Finally brothers fill your minds 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 and worthy of praise. Keep doing all the things that you have learnt from me and have been taught by me and have heard or seen that I do. Then the God of peace will be with you.

As we look at this Second Reading, dear friends, from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians, it is an invitation for us to look beyond ourselves. To move beyond the perception of how we view things because when we colour ourselves with so many things which is not of God, as we look at the vineyard, everything that was provided, everything that was done, was to produce good grapes. But because of the contamination that has happened, they produced sour grapes. And if we are able to go beyond our own perceptions of things, rather than looking at the externals and go beyond and looking at the internal disposition of the heart of every person, then we are able to see that goodness in the other.

And if we are able to produce good fruits in our lives, by nourishing us with the word of God, by the sacraments and by a close relationship with Jesus, the other has also the potential to be producing good and sweet grapes. And all that we need to do, dear friends, is to come together and to acknowledge the goodness of one another.

And as I was reviewing as well this whole aspect of this Synod in Rome, we see that the people come together, especially the delegates, come together in round tables to discuss, to deliberate and to listen to one another. In last week’s Day of Planning was also an opportunity that all the leaders of the parish came together to listen to one another to see what we should plan, what we ought to be included, what ought to be stopped and what needs to be renewed and how we can be inclusive, how can we be caring and how can we form this unity.

And we need to remind ourselves, dear friends, as we listen to one another, we are indeed tilling the soils of the vineyard of our lives. Because when we listen to one another in relation to what God has given to us, the blessings that we have received and the blessings that God has given to one another, we are able to acknowledge and see that God has allowed the vineyard to produce good, good fruit. And that is the vineyard of our lives, which is all of you and all of us.

So the question is: Are we going to make that choice to allow the grace of God to be at work in our lives so that we can produce good fruit?

If you take a look at the Gospel, the tenant was given that land full of that capability of producing sweet grapes. But because of the self-interest of the tenant, we see how more and more self-indulged they became. When the land owner sent more people to get the harvest, they wanted to kill and after that the owner sent the son and also the son was killed.

And as we look at these stories, dear friends, it is the story of salvation where Israel continues to reject and reject and reject God, even though they have all the potential to be a nation, to be a community that has God in their presence.

And today as we reflect upon these readings, let us take time to take a look at our own lives as well. Because when we allow that vineyard of our lives to produce good fruit, then we are indeed welcoming the Son that was sent. If we choose to be like the tenants who choose to reject the Son, we are indeed rejecting our own selves. Because when we allow the grace of God to be at work in our lives, we need to be inclusive, we welcome people. We allow people to grow in the awareness of God’s love in their life and we grow in our aspect of caring and doing so we grow together as a community that is united in our commitment to do everything that we do for the love of God.

And let us pray, dear friends, that this opportunity that God has given to us, to take time to reflect and to see where God is leading us. Let it be a time where we also orientate our life to see beyond the problems, beyond the perceptions, to see at the inner dispositions of our heart so that we are able to produce good fruit that the Lord wants to see in us.

And let us pray as well for our community. That as a community as well we can be a vineyard that is producing sweetness as we are able to enjoy the sweetness of the grapes in the way we see ourselves as good people and as we see the community as a community that is in fire with the love for Jesus and for one another.

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