Brothers and Sisters,

We made an amazing journey with Jesus and his disciples to Jerusalem and learned much about what it means to follow Jesus and His way. Last Sunday, we met Jesus in Jerusalem where we heard him challenging us, just as he challenged his disciples, to transform our negative responses to God into positive ones – to change our “no” to God into a decided “yes” and remain faithful. Today, we celebrate the Twenty-seventh Sunday in ordinary time. Our Scripture readings of today remind us of the generosity of our God who has provided us with all that we need and trusted us with His creation. The readings also remind us of how irresponsible, unfaithful, and ungrateful we have been and call us to be more faithful, grateful and generous.

In his “Song of the Vineyard”, Isaiah describes the failure of Israel to bear fruit, despite the blessings lavished upon them by a loving, forgiving and generous God (first reading).  The Psalmist pleads with God to look down from Heaven and to take care of Israel (Responsorial Psalm). Paul tells Philippians about the high expectations he has for them, reminding them that they need to become fruit-bearing Christians by praying and giving thanks to God and by practicing justice and living virtuous lives (Second Reading). The Parable of the tenant farmers, in the Gospel of today, remind us of the generosity of our God providing us with all our needs and the patience with which God responds to us who have become irresponsible and abusive of His trust. The parable also reminds us that abuse of God’s trust can be disastrous.

From the beginning of our sacred Scriptures, we read many stories of God’s generosity and patience and man’s ongoing irresponsibility and abuse of God’s trust. In the beginning of the Bible, we meet man and woman living in a land of abundance in total communion with God, with themselves and nature (Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7). In the midst of such abundance of blessing and grace, they failed to be true to what God made them to be and lost their sense of God and of themselves as God’s special creatures made in His image. They were to open their hearts and embrace the abundance that came from a generous heart, a heart of abundance, a heart love. But they looked for more and lost what they already had!!!

The author of the book of Proverbs (Proverbs 9:1-6) personifies wisdom as a lady and speaks of wisdom, after having built her house, inviting everyone to share the abundance…rich food, choice wines, etc. and (9:13-18) “folly” as a harlot who also invites everyone to feed on stolen food and drink. What Wisdom offers brings life and what Folly offers brings death. Generosity generates generosity and the lack of it generates emptiness!!!

To read more of these reflections, click on the button below….