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A Call to Faithful Stewardship
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The world is God's vineyard, and we are the tenants charged with its care. Each of us is entrusted with a small plot, a certain sphere of influence in which our personal gifts and talents are to be employed. Within these confines we are called upon to produce a rich and plentiful harvest for the Lord. This harvest will serve one day as tribute to the Landlord for gifts received. But most important, it is the means by which here and now we are to thrive and flourish.
With some small portion of God's vineyard in our care, all that is needed is our faithful and conscientious stewardship. In fact, our contribution is the only part of the divine plan that God cannot provide. We are the only ones who can "work the land" that is entrusted to us. We alone can cultivate it and look after its needs. And if we fail to do so, no one else will take our place. Without our collaboration, then, some part of God's vineyard goes untended and its vines go to ruin.
This is exactly the situation described in this week's gospel parable. The tenants to whom the landowner has entrusted his vineyard are lazy, self-serving, and ultimately rebellious. They disregard the landowner's generosity. They forget that they are but stewards of another's land. And most egregious, they fail to realize that by neglecting their duty they are in fact cutting themselves off from their very sustenance.
Faithful stewardship is admittedly not very glamorous. At times the duty to cultivate that which the Lord has given us can even be tedious. But toil and sweat and weeding and pruning are essential to any successful harvest; likewise, they are part and parcel of daily fidelity to our vocations as stewards of God's vineyard.
Like the tenants in the parable, we are not always attentive to our vocations. The good news is that God does not give up easily. As the same parable reveals, the landowner is relentless — even to the point of absurdity — in trying to bring the rebellious tenants to their senses. Sending emissary after emissary, including his own beloved son, the landlord refuses to believe that the tenants cannot be coaxed back into faithful service. It is the tenants' hardness of heart and not the landowner's lack of effort, then, which eventually seals their fate.
Today's gospel parable ends in tragedy. The same does not have to be true for us. With God's grace we can all be faithful stewards.
In Christ,
Fr. Stephen J. Sauer, S.J.
Pastor
