Father Dom's Homs: Cultivating the Kingdom: The Vineyard, the Tenants, and the Call to Protect Life

tmc 27th sun ot: This is the Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers, and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle crowd, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Our first reading in our gospel have an obvious connection. Isaiah speaking of building a vineyard and a wall and a tower and a winepress, and Jesus calling to mind that very same reading from Isaiah and his parable today about a vineyard and a wall and a tower and a winepress, along with the owner and the tenants. His servants and then his son. As I think about this gospel, which I've heard before, and every time my childhood comes to mind, there was a big part of my childhood where we were raised on a small hobby farm in the country. And so when I think of planting a vineyard, I I think of all the gardens that we had growing up and all the animals that we had to tend and All the work that was needed to to keep the the gardens going and the orchard growing and the animals protected and you know, it's kinda like, yeah, we had to build a wall around the gardens and the animals, you know, otherwise the deer would just come into the garden and eat all the produce and when it came time for harvest there wouldn't be hardly anything left. Or, you know, if we didn't protect the animals, you know, there'd be other animals that would come in, predators and take away the animals and wouldn't have anything to To eat. We also had this hedgerow of of grapes. There were Concor grapes. And my mom loved the grapes. She would harvest them in the fall, and she would make grape jam and she'd make grape juice. But we always knew when it was time for the grapes to be harvest, we had a big black Newfoundland named Heidi. And she would weasel her way into this hedge row of grapes and she would lay down and she would just munch on grapes. That's when we knew they were ready. What does a dog that munches on grapes have anything to do with the homily today? Well, nothing. I just think it's funny. The dog that eats grapes. But grapes are at the center of what we're talking about in both allegories presented by Isaiah and presented by Jesus, aren't they? Wine during the time of Jesus was a very, very important commodity, not just for the Israelites, but the whole entire region. Wine was actually used to purify water. There wasn't a lot of clean water around. And so the alcohol content of the wine would kind of purify the water and make it drinkable. So they would dilute their wine with water and they could drink it. And everybody would drink it. Kids, adults. They use it at meals. They use wine in in celebrations. They use la wine in religious liturgies. They use wine as as medicine. So wine is very, very important. And so it's no wonder why Jesus talks about wine. So vineyards were all over the place. It was very, very important. And so as we look at our readings today, we we see Isaiah writing about a vineyard eight hundred years before Christ. Isaiah is speaking to the northern kingdom of Israel, and of course, again, they have fallen out of God's statutes, commands, and decrees, and they've embraced idol worship once again. They've fallen out of favor with the Lord. And so Isaiah in courage and bravery is again preaching. Prophesying to the northern kingdom using the analogy of a vineyard, saying, Don't you understand that you are a prized possession? We are a prized possession of God. We are Israelites, we are the chosen nation, you are the vine, precious in the eyes of God, and you want to walk away from Him. You walk away from God. There's no hope, he's saying, and he's using an analogy of the vineyard, for Israel is the vineyard. The hedge around it is the great protection that God gives to Israel, the Israeli nation. And then the wine press that is in it, along with the tower. Well, that's the temple. And the center of all Jerusalem. The temple was a center of of economy, governance, politics. Theology, sacrifice. It was a center of their very existence, and that's where the wine came from, and that's where the tower was built, so that all would know this is God's house, and from it he nourishes his people with rich choice wine. From good vineyards, with good tenants, good servants, and of course the good owner who is God. But since they have fallen idle out of worship and into idol worship of God and into idol worship, Isaiah is saying you have to come back to God. Otherwise, he will allow all this beautiful Things of God to be destroyed and Soon after that, the Assyrian Empire comes in from the north and does exactly that. Destroys the northern kingdom, smashing the vineyard and the hedge around it, the wine press and the tower. Well, later, the people will turn back to God, but it's Israel in the south. And everything will be rebuilt once again. But Isaiah is saying, see, the Lord wants good grapes. He doesn't want wild grapes. You can't do anything with wild grapes. But see, in the northern kingdom, that's all you're producing are wild grapes. And he's speaking to the leaders. He's teaching speaking to the Pharisees. And and well, the Pharisees weren't around back then, but it was the temple priests, it were the scribes, it was those who were supposed to lead the people to God and they weren't, and they were producing wild grapes. You cannot do anything with wild grapes. Good grapes, that's righteousness. Wild grapes, unrighteousness. You could do much with the righteousness of God. But without God, we bring forth wild grapes that are good for nothing. Okay, so we fast forward 800 years, and then now we have Jesus, God in the flesh. And this is very interesting because he's speaking to the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, and the temple priests, and he smacked Ab in the temple. And this is this is. Shortly after this, this is where he begins his passion. So this is his last parable that he speaks, and then he enters into his passion. So he's in the temple and he's speaking to the leaders of the Israelites, saying, You have to bring forth good fruit so you can lead the people to God. Little did they know that God is right in front of them. The very thing that they know so much about in the Old Testament scriptures, the very thing that they're supposed to be preparing for, the Messiah, God in the flesh, right in front of them, and they miss it because they're so full of. Anger. So full of idols. Well, Jesus puts forth this parable again. And the leaders know exactly what Jesus is talking about. Jesus isn't out on the plain. He's not out on the sea. He's not on the mountain. He's not talking to normal people. He's talking to the leaders of Israel. Just like Isaiah did so long ago. And so when he speaks of the vineyard in the exact same way as Isaiah does, the scribes and the Pharisees, the temple priests, the leaders of Israel. Jerusalem and Israel know exactly what he's talking about. But what why is Jesus doing this? Why is God in the flesh before his people saying a parable that he knows is going to irritate them? Well, see, Jesus wants conversion. He wants their heart. He wants to say something so powerful. He wants to present them with an analogy that they know of so that they can be converted. That's how much Jesus loves them, loves them. So he takes this risk of being in the temple. And he says to them the very parable they know. Well, the landowner they know is God. The tenants that God leases the vineyard to, well, those are the Israelites. That's the Israeli nation. Those are the priests and the and the scribes and the Pharisees who are supposed to lead them to God. Well, the servants, the servants are the prophets, Isaiah and Ezekiel and Elijah. All the prophets that God sent to the tenants. To say, follow God, follow his commandments, bring his love to the people like you're supposed to do. Well, we know that they killed Jeremiah, they killed Isaiah, they stoned many others, just like the tenants who seized the servants beat them, or maybe killed them, or stoned them. But yet again, in his love, God's love and infinite mercy, he sends them more prophets, even more numerous than the first. But again, the tenants treat them in the same way. And God taking it ever more Deeply out of love, takes on flesh and he comes himself. And he says, Well, they didn't respect anybody else. Well, maybe they'll respect my son. But they don't. They say the same thing. This is his heir. If we can take him and kill him, then we can have it all. We can have it all for ourselves. We can have all the power. We can have all the money. We can have what what we want. We can do what we want when we want now. Because we're in charge. And of course, they seized him and they threw him out of the vineyard and then they killed him. Well the vineyard is Jerusalem, and then you have the wall. If you've ever been to the Holy Land, Calvary or Golgotha, where they crucified criminals, was at a crossroad in the marketplace to make it such a public spectacle for everyone to see. And so when they threw the sun out of the vineyard, it's the exact same thing they're gonna soon do to Jesus outside Jerusalem to Calvary, where they will crucify him. But Jesus lays the Old Testament analogy before them, but we know that Jesus at in his parables always has a twist at the end. Because we know that Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament, to bring about a new temple, to bring about a new form of worship through his body and his church. And he says, Yes, this will all be destroyed, prophesying in the year 70 AD, the Romans destroying the temple. But again, God says, if you follow me, I will become the cornerstone of this new kingdom. And in this new kingdom, even though it may be taken away from you, I will give it to people who will produce its fruit. Who are those people? That's you and me. Through our baptism, we're baptized, priest, prophet, and king. And then God works through us, through his son and the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's why the sacraments are so beautiful that God has given us to unite ourselves to him. So that we can be laborers in the vineyard and so that we can go out and produce good fruit and show other people how to do the same thing and invite them into the church so that they too can be washed with the blood of Christ in the sacraments. They can experience God and his fullness. So as we reflect on this gospel, we also remember that today we celebrate Respect Life Sunday, which which kicks off this great month of praying and fasting for those who are in governing positions so that they can protect life from womb to tomb. The most important, the most vulnerable. We can pray and fast for those institutions that help and protect and and guide those who are in situations where they need help and they have nowhere else. To go, we can we can pray and fast that governing bodies will implement proper, beautiful rules and laws of God that will stop human trafficking. That will stop assisted suicide or or euthanasia and abortion and will help flourish culture and society at which is at the center and and that's that's marriage between a man and a woman and a man and a woman alone. That's the bedrock of our culture and society that begins to flourish the proper understanding of what it means to be human. In the eyes of God, created in his image and likeness. And so as we gather here, we let these scriptures wash over us, we receive the Eucharist, we know that we are in the new temple, one that cannot be destroyed because it's Christ's body. We know that the fruit that we produce is the grace that we receive and give to other people. And we know that the light that we bring is Christ and the Holy Spirit to a world in so much darkness that needs him so much. So with joy and thanksgiving, we thank the Lord for this day. We thank the Lord for allowing us to labor in his vineyard to produce good fruits. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the show has added value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.