27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Vigil)
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting
Immaculate Conception Chapel, Shrine of Sainte-Anne de Beaupre
Quebec, Canada
October 7, 2023
The Lord of History Knocks
For the past several Sundays, we’ve been listening to the parables of Jesus. Jesus addressed these parables to the religious leaders of his day, leaders who had hardened their minds and hearts against him, leaders, who, in their legalism, couldn’t see the big picture, the forest for the trees. It is as if the Lord of History kept knocking at the door of their hearts with the piercing rhetoric of the Father’s love, just as surely as he is knocking at the door of our hearts today.
As if to expand the myopic vision of those religious leaders, Jesus in this parable sums up the entire sweep of salvation history in four stages: First the Owner who planted a vineyard with care and delight stands for the Lord who created the world and chose the people of Israel to reveal his glory. As we read in Isaiah, God was looking for the good fruit of love from his vineyard but received only the wild grapes of human discord. In the second stage the Owner sent envoys to the wayward tenants, envoys who stand for the prophets God sent to win back the hearts of his people. They spoke God’s truth and for their trouble, they were persecuted and killed. Then the third stage, when the Owner sent his son to the wicked tenants, saying to himself, “Surely, they will respect my son”. This decision strikes us as strangely naïve…until we remember this: ‘God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life…’ And listening to this parable coming from the lips of Jesus, we realize that he was keenly aware of his destiny to die for a sinful humanity. Finally comes the fourth stage, when, after a long apparent absence, the Owner returns and reckons with the wicked tenants. This corresponds to the last day when, after millennia of Christianity, Christ, the Lord of History, will return in glory to judge the living and the dead.
God’s Apparent Absence
So why is this parable so impactful on our consciences? It’s impact has to do with the Owner’s apparent absence from the vineyard. Thinking he would never visit, the tenants behaved shamefully. The culture we’re a part of is a lot like those wicked tenants described so well in Psalm 14: “The fool says in his heart, there is no God!” Thinking that God is either non-existent or missing in action, those wicked tenants have come to life in our times and their fruit is bitter indeed. As St. John Paul II said so prophetically, ‘the eclipse of God has led to the eclipse of man.’ Forgetfulness of God has not brought justice and peace but discord and division, and has wrought grave harm in the lives of many.
Protagonists of the New Evangelization
And what about us? Will we just whine about this state of affairs, like talking heads on cable TV? Or will we, the family of the Knights of Columbus, be agents of change, by embracing our vocation to be “protagonists of the New Evangelization”?
Let us be clear: the Lord has not abandoned us, nor has he left us as orphans. The Risen seated at the Father’s right hand is truly with us, for he speaks to us in Scripture, forgives our sins in Confession, is really, truly, and substantially present in the Eucharist, and is present when we gather to pray. The Lord’s absence is only apparent, for faith sees what ‘our senses fail to fathom’. But to reiterate, many regard the unseen God as dead, absent, or irrelevant.
So, for us as Knights, here is a “take-away”: When many people look at the Church (beset as she is by man-made problems), they do not see the Lord; they see only us – and “us” includes not only “Catholics in the pews” but also the world’s largest fraternal organization. As fellow tenants with those who imagine that God is absent, let’s remember that God’s apparent absence is a standing invitation for us “to grow into our vocation to be the eyes and hands and heart of God in this world.” In God’s grace, we also have it in our power continually to open our hearts to God’s plan and purpose for our world and for our lives, and thus bear witness to his provident and merciful truth and love. This we do by living our principles of charity, unity, fraternity, and patriotism.
But let us also remember soberly that we have it in our power to reinforce the view that God is gone forever. It’s not that we’d overtly forsake the Savior or leave his Church, but only that we’d gradually dethrone him from our inner pedestal, gradually marginalizing him from our daily conversations, decisions, and interactions.
By Their Fruits You Will Know Them
Elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says, “by their fruits you will know them.” If our lives reap the same harvest of wild grapes as does the world around us, then the Gospel will continue to lose ground in contemporary culture. If, on the other hand, we work cooperatively with the Owner, accepting the graces he offers us in his Word and in his Sacraments, then we will produce a harvest pleasing to God and convincing to many, even those who look at the Church cynically.
In general terms we can particularize, St. Paul describes what that harvest should be: “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise…” This is the harvest that the Owner of the Vineyard is looking for, and this is the only harvest that leads to our true fulfillment as individual persons, as members of the Church, and as the family of the Knights of Columbus family.
Relying on the prayers of the Mary, Our Lady of the Rosary, the prayers of Sts. Joachim and Anne, as also the prayers of good St. Joseph and Blessed Michael McGivney – let us go forth from the holy place to our respective vineyards eager to follow Christ and eager to produce the good fruit of his Gospel, he who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen! Vivat Jesus!