On the Lord's Vineyard

 The Fruits which the Lord Expects from His People

In both the first reading and the Gospel, the vineyard of the Lord is his people. In the first reading, God is upset with his people: they are like a vineyard which produces bad fruit. In the Gospel, God is upset with the shepherds of his people: they are like bad tenants who keep the fruit of His vineyard for themselves. In both cases, however, God has done everything He could in order to obtain fruits from his vineyard. God wanted fruits of love and repentance and did not obtain them.

God wants fruit from everyone. What is the fruit God is expecting from you?

From His people, God expected justice. Justice is the interior disposition by which we give to each person what is due to them.

Our due towards God is praise, honor and worship: by praise and honor we give God our soul, by worship we give God our time, our concrete reality and, in that sense, our bodies (as, for example, when we come to Mass).

Our due towards our neighbor is respect for their true good. The good of human beings is complex: there is a spiritual good, which is the most important; and then there is the good of life, the good of the transmission of life, the material goods which are needed to maintain life and the social good which is, for example, a good reputation.

When we respect these goods and give each his or her own, we produce fruits of justice. If we have not respected these goods at some point, then the fruit of justice we need to produce is the fruit of repentance. In the sacrament of Reconciliation, the sweet fruit of repentance replaces the bad grape of our sins, and we become again God’s sweet vine.

Bad leaders made God upset because they kept for themselves the fruit which belonged to God. When we do good to others, we may be tempted to keep the glory for ourselves... There is nothing wrong about being praised by people when we do good, but we should not forget Who gave us the talents, the opportunity and the energy to do good. Even our good will is a gift: “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 5:5). We should always give God the recognition for what He has done, in us and through us, for the good of His Vineyard, the Church.

Giving God the glory for what we do does not take away the joy of achievement but actually increases it. You could put it this way: “God could have done this job by Himself or by another person. The fact that He gave the job to me, means that He loves me in a particular way.”

What is the fruit God expects from my vineyard? What is the fruit I am producing? Am I keeping for myself something which belongs to God?

May God rejoice in our fruits of love and repentance.

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