Our readings for this weekend are taken again from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and St. Matthew’s Gospel. The selection from St. Paul’s letter just happens to be the final chapter of his letter and he provides us with these directions: Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, and act like men. In a word, be strong. Do everything with love…. If anyone does not love the Lord, let a curse be upon him. O Lord, come!
The assigned passage from St. Matthew that serves as our Gospel presents the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. In this parable the tenants, who leased a vineyard, did not share with the landowner his share of the harvest. Although the landowner tried several different approaches to obtain his share of the harvest, the tenants, in hope of gaining the vineyard for themselves, did everything they could so they did not have to pay for the lease on the vineyard. They even killed the landowner’s son, believing that if they eliminated the heir to the property, they could claim it for themselves.
So in both readings we see an exhortation to live in a manner which is loving, just and not self-serving. Both readings highlight, I believe, the fact that it is important how we live this life on earth and that there are consequences to our behavior. Jesus, like Paul, ends His exhortation by saying: I tell you, if you act like the wicked tenants the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will yield a rich harvest. As the Gospel further says: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they realized he was speaking about them.
This raises a point. Do we, when we hear Paul’s words and the parables of Jesus, truly understand that the Scriptures are not just relating something written by Paul or said by Jesus to people in the past. They are exhorting us to be genuine in our faith and that, if we are genuine in our faith, our behavior must reflect our belief.
Our belief is that it is important how we treat others and how we live in order to develop our union with God. To truly be in union with God, we must treat others in a manner that is fueled by love and justice. If we are self-centered, focusing only on feeding our own self-interests, we make ourselves unable to treat and love others as ourselves. If we are selfish and self-centered, we cannot truly love God and make it impossible for ourselves to be in God’s Kingdom.