What’s your place in the vineyard?
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Matthew 2: 33 - 43
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for October 8, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
What’s your place in the vineyard?
If you’ve been paying attention to the past two Sundays, this Sunday is the third time Jesus gives a parable having to do with a vineyard. Unless you’ve been to Niagara-on-the-Lake, you probably don’t see vineyards too regularly. But Israel was a land of vineyards, and so a vineyard was something the people were very familiar with, and could reflect on easily.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says very clearly, that the vineyard is the kingdom of God, which has been entrusted to us, to produce the “fruits” of the kingdom. Here Jesus is not talking about literal grapes, but everything that should be there where the kingdom of God is present – righteousness, justice, love, peace, etc.
But just like a real vineyard, these things do not just happen on their own. A whole team of people has to work to get the right balance through training, pruning, and thinning the vines, to get the maximum yield. What is your place on this team? What do you think is most needed in the Church, in the vineyard of the Lord?
“...True to the spirit of the founders, the Congregation strives for the resurrection of society, especially through the parish and educational apostolates.”