TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
8 OCTOBER 2017
Homily
I have a list–an internal list–of the ways my life could be improved.
I could have hair–on the top of my head.
I could live where it was always summer and never winter.
I could sing–really sing, beautifully.
I could not ache after I exercise.
I could…..
Well, you get the idea.
I bet you have such a list as well, a list of the way your life could be better.
And yet the truth is for most of us here, our lives are pretty good, especially in this country.
How could they be better?
At this point, only greed makes us ask that question.
It is the question, however, of both the first reading and the gospel.
What more could God have done–for them,
but really, of course, the question is: What more could God have done for us?
Scholars say the “vineyard” is used more often than any other image to
refer to God’s people and his relationship with his people.
That’s interesting, because grapes and wine,
were not the staple of life, barley and wheat–grains were the staples of life.
Why then a vineyard–why grapes and wine?
Because the fruit of our relationship with God is not just “getting by,”
but it is meant to be joyful, the added zest of life.
The point is that God can’t do a lot more. The rest is up to us.
The reverse question is really the question of the day.
What good fruit have we produced, lately?
It’s not just a generic question, one to be tossed off lightly?
God has given us each the means to produce good fruit.
What more could God have given us.
Where is our good fruit?
We’re asked to look around our lives.
Where is the joy?
What have we produced?