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The
Mystery of God's Choice
October
2, 2005 Homily
Matthew
21:33-43
Fr.
George Smiga
Today's
parable is peculiar. It is not only violent, but parts of
it do not make much sense. With their previous behavior, why
would the landowner think that the tenants would respect his
son? Why would the tenants imagine that if they killed the
son, they would gain the inheritance? In short this is a difficult
parable to interpret as a whole. But what we can do is zero
in on particular details in this parable to see what they
reveal about God and about us. This is what I propose to do
this weekend.
The
one thing that is quite clear in the parable is that the landowner
should have shown more care in choosing the tenants to run
his vineyard. Their subsequent action proved them untrustworthy,
not up for the job. But in the parable the only qualification
which the landowner requires is that the tenant workers were
available. Once they were hired the landowner gave trusted
them to do what was right. They betrayed that trust, and that
is a tragedy. But their failure is not the point we wish to
emphasize today. Our focus is the action of the landowner
and how his action reflects the action of God.
God
calls us to build the Kingdom. God does not call us because
we are the best, but because we are available. Having called
us, God asks us to use whatever gifts we have and to be trustworthy.
We can easily say to ourselves, “I am not the best father
or mother,” but we have still been called to that service.
God still expects us to be as good of a father or mother that
we are able to be. We can say that other people have more
patience, more wisdom than we do. God, nevertheless, asks
us to use the patience and the wisdom that we have. It is
always easy to point to someone else who is more qualified,
better suited, to do the tasks that we have been called to
do. But pointing to another does not excuse us. We are called
not because we are the best, but because God needs someone
to build the kingdom.
After
communion today, Julieta from Women & Community
will address us about our partnership with Women &
Community in El Salvador . She will be speaking to us
and asking for our prayerful and financial support. Her presence
here today is an invitation to each one of us. We can, as
always, say that someone else is more holy and better qualified
to pray, that someone else is more wealthy and more qualified
to give. But we are asked today to use the gifts that we have
in order to build the Kingdom of God .
The
tenants in the parable proved themselves unworthy of the trust
that was placed in them. Each day we have an opportunity to
prove ourselves worthy of the trust that God has placed in
us.
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