Search

Results

Homily stories

04 Sep 2011 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

One of the most successful musicals playing on Broadway and elsewhere is a prequel based on what happened before the events of the movie The Wizard of Oz. The name of the musical is Wicked. And that is a great title. Reminding us of the Wicked Witch of the West, it is both foreboding and nostalgic. We do not use the adjective "wicked" to describe anyone very much. Rarely do we call politicians or felons or tyrant "wicked." And when we do, it sounds vaguely archaic. So who are the "wicked ones" to whom Ezekiel refers? And why does he predict such a dire fate for them? The wicked are those who choose not to love. As it says in Romans, "Love does no evil to the neighbor." To keep ourselves from a fate worse than melting like the Wicked Witch did, we need to come together in prayer. Jesus will be there in our midst. And no evil can penetrate that circle of prayer. The forces of love and faith that come together are greater than any wickedness that may be around us. We should find this both comforting and challenging.

Authors Father Dominic Grassi

Evil wicked Love Prayer

Restricted
The inner word

08 Oct 2023 - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Today’s parable of the wicked tenants highlights the mistreatment and rejection that the messengers of God receive at the hands of those to whom they are sent. Have you ever felt that a message you delivered, perhaps in a homily, met with strong rejection? How do you handle rejection? Are you able to move beyond rejection and come back stronger? Has it perhaps left some wounds that still need healing? Can you see in it an opportunity for strengthening your convictions?

parable of the wicked tenants

Restricted
Exploring the word

08 Oct 2023 - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

How many love songs does the world need? If you can come up with a number, then maybe you’ve never been in love. The great songwriting duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney had an argument over this equation. John was tired of composing songs he deemed repetitive and frankly irresponsible in a world so in need of a challenging message. Paul responded by writing "Silly Love Songs," with its lyric: “Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs. /And what’s wrong with that?” The song repeats an ecstatic series of “I love yous” and a question sung in tones of wonder: “How can I tell you about my loved one?” Most of us would agree with McCartney that “Love isn’t silly at all.” Truth is, silly is the last word we might use to describe most love songs. Painful is more like it. Songs about love tend to break down into several familiar categories: 1. My Sweetheart Died and Went to Heaven; 2. My Sweetheart Left Me for Someone Else; 3. My Sweetheart Doesn’t Know I Exist; 4. I Really Blew It with My Sweetheart This Time; 5. I Sure Miss My Sweetheart. Perhaps the most infamous category of love songs is the one found in every country-western jukebox. It’s the Somebody-Done-Somebody-Wrong song, infused with weepy lyrics about broken hearts, empty rooms, cold nights, and sympathetic bartenders. While we may think about this genre as “made in the U.S.A.,” ballads of love gone wrong have been popular since the Greco-Roman empire, at least. As we listen to the story of the Vineyard Song the prophet Isaiah wrote in the eighth century B.C., we realize that the story of love gone wrong is as old as love itself. My friend had a vineyard Granted, the Vineyard Song is a bit on the unconventional side when it comes to love-gone-wrong story lines. It’s about a guy besotted with, well, a vineyard. The vineyard is a metaphor, of course; if you follow it through you see this guy does for his vineyard what every lover tries to do for the beloved. He chooses his vines with utmost care: He wants only the best. He picks the most fertile site to plant them. He clears away all obstacles, spares no effort in turning the soil to provide these vines with the perfect rooting ground. He builds a watchtower to keep a lookout for predators. He even goes ahead and constructs the winepress for the harvest he anticipates. This fellow does everything right. He has every reason to be hopeful of success. He waits only on the grapes to ripen. He is not at fault when the inexplicable failure emerges: The grapes arrive; they are inedible. The poor fellow is beside himself. His grief and outrage are about equal. He spends his frustration on the hillside, scene of his former hopes, breaking down the protective hedges and walls, allowing predators to trample and devour the results of his labor. He throws his tools away, allows nature to take its course and to cover the site of his humiliation with brambles. Bitterly, he calls for the clouds to withhold rain from his once-ideal growing site. The despair Isaiah describes is the very familiar anguish of the somebody-done-somebody-wrong song. And God is the vineyard owner, and we are the ones who done God wrong. Hear another parable The Vineyard Song was evidently a popular theme in Israel. Psalm 80, our responsorial psalm today, echoes the story of God and Israel, the beloved vine. God uprooted this vine from Egypt and gently carried it to safety on the far side of the Jordan. God cared for the vine until Israel’s infidelity exposed the nation to the attack of wild countries on the prowl. Israel accuses God of abandoning the community to danger, but we who know all about love-gone-wrong songs know better. When someone is unfaithful, love becomes as vulnerable as a house of cards. Jesus tells the story of the vineyard yet again in a parable delivered before the chief priests and elders. This time, he casts his present audience of religious leaders into the song in the roles of tenants hired to work the land. In this updated version of the old love song, it’s the vineyard owner squaring off against the tenants, not the vines themselves. There is no indication of the walls of the property not being sound, or the vines being at risk, or the grapes being soured. It’s the religious leaders themselves who stand between the rightful owner and his harvest. These wretched tenants are even willing to kill the owner’s son to remain in possession of the grapes. Some of us may feel relief that, when Jesus tells the story, the religious leaders are cast in the role of the bad guys. Thank goodness: We don’t get the blame this time! If somebody done somebody wrong, it wasn’t us. But alas: Who is in charge of the vineyard today if not for us? We are the community charged with the responsibility of the gospel and the riches of the kingdom of heaven. If the harvest is not being delivered to its rightful owner today, whose fault could it be but yours and mine? This song ends on a note sad enough to be eligible for the country-western jukebox. The Kingdom will be removed from the custody of bad tenants and given to better ones. That’s certainly the way the song finishes in Jesus’ day. But how will it end in ours? Applying the word Think about these things Saint Paul invites us to step up a little higher than the tenants in Jesus’ version of the Vineyard Song. He urges us to turn toward whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise. Turn, in other words, toward the God of peace. If we do, we might fill the world with a few more love songs. And what’s wrong with that? Related scripture links Vineyard images: Ps. 128:3; Prov. 24:30-34; Sir. 24:17-21; Isa. 16:10; 27:2-9; Jer. 2:21; Ezek. 15:1-8; 19:10-14; Hos. 10:1; John 15:1-10 Catechism links Vineyard: CCC 755 Garden of virtues: CCC 1803

Authors Alice Camille

love songs vineyard song parable of the wicked tenants

Restricted