Wonderful in Our Eyes

October 5, 2008

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? Isaiah 5:4

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit. Matthew 21:43

Piety

Psalm 80 (9-20)

You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove away the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground; it took root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered by its shadow, the cedars of God by its branches.

It sent out boughs as far as the sea, shoots as far as the river.

Why have you broken down the walls, so that all who pass by pluck its fruit?

The boar from the forest strips the vine; the beast of the field feeds upon it.

Turn again, LORD of hosts; look down from heaven and see; Attend to this vine, the shoot your right hand has planted.

Those who would burn or cut it down-- may they perish at your rebuke.

May your help be with the man at your right hand, with the one whom you once made strong.

Then we will not withdraw from you; revive us, and we will call on your name.

LORD of hosts, restore us; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

Study

What more could the Lord have done for us to convince us that he loves us with lasting love? What more could he have given us that would tell us that we are greatly loved? He invites us to make our needs known by prayer and petition. He tells us to have no anxiety. He promises us the peace of God in Christ Jesus. There is happiness surpassing all understanding waiting for us in even the thoughts of what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellence if we but think of the good things of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

God loves us so much that he sends his only son into our lives to collect the rent. The harvest of the fruits of the gifts that God has given us is paid in the way we share our lives with one another. Our first love goes to God. But the second love of our lives is our neighbors. How we share our lives is the work of our lives. Our piety is how we relate to Christ. How real a Christ am I willing to be? Our study of Christ and all that he does for us by his words and his deeds gives us the plan. Christ becomes the cornerstone of our lives by how we make our own lives an update of Christ. All the ways that we offer ourselves becomes the ways we our Christ-like to each other. We need to realize all that Christ has done for us and to go and try to do likewise. We can not afford to be wild grapes. What Christ says to us and how he touches our lives by the lived word of all our brothers and sisters is what we are responsible for before God and each other.

Action

Paul becomes for us the example of what is possible. He who persecuted the Christians becomes the great preacher. He lives the words of Christ. We can learn from Paul how to be what Christ wants us to be. Each of the fruits of the Spirit is the gift of the Spirit being lived out. Our actions give the good wine of Christianity. Our willingness to give our lives for each other fleshes out Christ in our lives as we become his hands and his feet to reach those who are estranged from Christ. We are called to offer ourselves each day to the needs of the people of God who are the Mystical Body of Christ. Then our actions will allow others to see in us what was seen in Paul and the God of peace will be with us. Then we can go and bear fruit that will remain.