Church tradition has long identified the vineyard in this parable as Israel. The tenants were seen as the leaders of ancient Israel, the servants as the prophets who received the unjust treatment from them, and the son is Jesus himself. To many observers, this gospel passage alludes to the rejection of Jesus’ preaching by the elders and chief priests. We gather together as his followers but how often do we find ourselves doing the same thing, rejecting his word?
Think of the vineyard as your mind and the wicked tenants as your negative beliefs, habits and attitudes. The servants are divine ideas that your ego rejects. The tenants’ final act of defiance, in killing the son, refers to our rejection of Jesus whenever we commit a grave sin.
Our mind often finds itself engaged in a tug of war between good and evil. The tenants seek to dupe our conscience into rejecting what is right in favor of evil. Sometimes we do not see the wrong we commit as evil. Failing to see the harm up front that such a choice can generate, the mind convinces itself that the act is harmless and all right, although the Church says it’s wrong. Simply put, any sin generates harm.
At times we forget that each of us is a masterpiece of God’s creation. Genocidal slaughter based on ethnic and religious differences have touched just about every culture and land, including ours, most recently in Ferguson, Missouri. But the destruction doesn’t stop there. Lets not forget domestic violence, terminally ill patients committing suicide with the help of their doctors, innocent prisoners who have been executed, and countless children killed by abortion or abuse.
Our culture projects some values as being quite acceptable, perhaps because those who find them offensive and immoral often choose to remain silent on the matter. Such silence doesn’t make the evil disappear as one German ruefully observed following WWII, “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, but I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then, they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
The immorality, the violence and the killings we hear of daily are so pervasive that they may seem beyond our control. So, we reason, as did many Germans during the reign of Adolf Hitler, that we have neither the power nor the responsibility to change things. Yet, all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.
Saint John Paul II once touched upon the chaos of our moral scene, when he said, “So great is the confusion at times that for many people the difference between good and evil is determined by the opinion of the majority, and even the time honored havens of human life— the family, the law and medicine—are sometimes made to serve the culture of death. At such a time, Christians must act.”
“The choice,” the Pope went on to say, “in favor of life is not a private option but a basic demand of a just and moral society.” To restore the respect that all life is due, there must be a reawakening in our hearts to really know and live the good news of Jesus Christ. Just as countless sins contribute to the culture of death, countless individual choices to be virtuous can build up a culture of life.
Any contractor knows that without a cornerstone, a building cannot be well built and could even collapse. As Jesus points out, “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Ultimately as the cornerstone of our lives, Christ must supplant the false beliefs, habits, and attitudes, which the wicked tenants within our minds represent.
If Jesus is to be the cornerstone of our lives, then we must endeavor to know him so that his voice stands out from the rest of the world. Such awareness emerges through prayer and study, which like any important relationship in our lives demand time and focus on our part.
Alas, many Catholics ignore certain moral teachings of the Church for personal reasons or are ignorant of them when making choices. In his upcoming mission, Fr. Jude Eli will present an overview on Catholic morality. If you have issue with the Church’s stance on certain morals, I urge you to come and see how we can find peace when we seek to understand the wisdom behind God’s ways, which the Church conveys to us through her teachings.
A decade ago, our bishops wrote, “A culture of life, where every human life is protected, respected, and celebrated, begins with a personal decision to respect the dignity of others. But it will take much more than that. We must bear this culture to others through our words and actions, and work for public policies that support human life and human dignity. Above all, we must pray.” Rightly so, for that is the antidote Paul offers in his letter to free us of anxiety.
Is Jesus the cornerstone of your life? CS Lewis wrote, “You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse.” If you believe, as I do, that he is the Son of God, then listen to him and heed his wisdom when making choices so that others know they too are masterpieces of God’s creation.