HOMILY FOR SUNDAY 27TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR 1
BY: DEACON BILL FRERE
HOMILY THEME: TURNING A DEAF EAR
OLD CITY, JERUSALEM
Gospel – Matthew 21:33-43
A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups, and set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of a little boy. “Mister,” he said, “I want to buy one of your puppies.” “Well,” said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, “these puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money.”
The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer. “I’ve got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?” “Sure,” said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. “Here Dolly!” he called. Out from the doghouse and down ramp ran Dolly followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse.
Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in an awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up….
“I want that one,” the little boy said, pointing to the runt.
The farmer knelt down at the boy’s side and said, “Son, you don’t want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would.” With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, “You see sir, I don’t run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.”
Nobody likes being rejected, being picked last for the team or treated like they were invisible or unimportant, much less suffer physical abuse and pain from bullies. None of us like being the runt of the litter.
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And yet that is exactly how the tenants treat the Master’s servants – beaten and stoned! And when the Master sends His own Son, they seize Him and kill Him. Jesus, in this parable, continues to direct His lesson at the Pharisees and elders. God sent you the prophets and you refused to listen to them. Some of them you beat and tortured and threw out of the city, even killed! And now the Lord sends His own Son – Jesus – and you will do the same. You will take me out of the vineyard (Jerusalem) and have me put to death. God has continued to send you His messengers to lead you along the right path. And you have refused to listen to them. You treat them like the runt in the litter.
Like the boy in the story, we see our God as a God of compassion. He continues to send His messengers to us; He keeps hoping that we will listen to His message and change our ways. He never gives up on us; He never stops loving us.
God continues to talk to us every single day – through the Scriptures, through the Eucharist, through opportunities to live out our Christian faith. How do we respond? Are we open to His words, His message? Do we carry out the commandment to love in our interactions with others? Do we welcome Him into our lives? Or, like the tenants, do we turn a deaf ear and stubbornly refuse to listen? Just as the Master continued to send His servants to the tenants, God visits us every day in the words of the Gospel, in the poor, the needy, the abused and forgotten, yes even the runts of the litter. Are we listening? Are we paying attention?
Today’s Gospel parable is essentially a summary of salvation history for the Jews! The landowner (God) created this beautiful vineyard (the earth) and then put tenants in place to care for it (humanity). When He sent servants (prophets) to collect the harvest (their faith), the tenants abuse and even kill the servants (refuse to listen to the prophets). Finally He sent His Son (Jesus) and they killed Him too – a prediction of Jesus’ coming passion and death.
While their response to the servants and the son are extreme, the message is clear! God continues to send us His messengers; He continues to call us to account, to see how well we have been tending the vineyard (keeping the faith). Are we listening? Did we hear the message?
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