Hi everyone, and welcome to Weekly Homilies with Father Mark Suslenko, Pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. We are part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. I'm Carol Vassar, parish director of communications, and this is Episode 34 of Season 6 for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary time: Oct. 8, 2023. Our Gospel reading is from Matthew, Chapter 21, verses 33-43
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? 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."
The Gospel of the Lord.
“Producing God’s Good Fruit” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut
A year ago this past summer, a friend of mine decided to purchase a home. Now, what you need to understand about this home is, first of all, it's in a very rural area, but it's also one of these deals that, from a curbside perspective, if you knew that this place was for sale, you would just keep walking by the street and not even give it another notice, just based on the condition of the dwellings that were on this piece of property. Not only were they dilapidated and some of them in need of great repair, but they were filled with a tremendous amount of junk. But he saw the diamond in the rough and purchased the whole thing.
As he set about the business of straightening and organizing and cleaning and rebuilding, one of the things he desired to do as spring came around was to plant his garden. Now, when you have an agenda of just trying to set up housekeeping and get your primary affairs in order, a garden is not something that would be high on one's priority list, but it was on his, even in the midst of all the other things that captivated his attention.
And so he carved out this piece of land. He tilled it and prepared it for a garden, and his hope was to then take the produce that would be generated and actually sell it to folks who are going by the area. And so he worked diligently at producing this garden, tilling and cultivating and fertilizing and purchasing the right types of plants so that there is a many and varied variety of produce.
And it succeeded. It grew, and the abundance of the yield was incredible, and his vision was achieved. Now, as you step back from that experience and that analogy, that story, yes, it was important to use the right fertilizer. Yes, it was important to till the ground properly. Yes, it was important to purchase the right types of plants. Yes, it was important to maintain it and work at it and cultivate it and nurture it and tend to it. But what was most important about the success of that project was his will to see it succeed. He wanted this to happen. And that will to make it happen is what contributed in great part to its success, even in the midst of the busyness of life. It was the will to see it succeed.
And that's how it is for us with the kingdom of God. And the question becomes for each one of us gathered here today as we consider the fact that God wants us out in that vineyard, that he wants us producing good fruit. Is it our heartfelt desire, mind, body, soul, spirit, to be people who produce good fruit? Is it important for us to produce good fruit for God's kingdom?
How high that is on our priority level is going to then determine how successful we are at accomplishing that task. Because we can set up all of the right pieces in all of the right places and do all that we need to do. But if we really do not want to produce the good fruit, the project is going to be sabotaged, and it won't come to fruition. It requires the investment of our will.
How do we become invested in the kingdom of God so that we want, above all else, to produce God's good fruit?
Well, first of all, we have to be convinced that the Gospel, the kingdom of God, is right and true. Not our kingdom, but God's kingdom. That it's not the ways of the world that are important, but it's the ways of the Gospel and God's vision for humanity that's important. We have to buy into that vision, first of all and want to achieve it above all else.
Second, We need to have an incredible desire and a will to live eternally with God forever in heaven. We've got to want eternal life. Not half-heartedly, not just a little bit, but all of it, with our whole essence of being, that we want to be with God united in heaven one day; That that is important for us; that that goal is something we truly want to achieve.
So if we buy into the Gospel and the kingdom of God as something that is right and true, a vision that I want to buy into, that I want to be a part of, and if we're really into and desiring eternal life with God and the happiness that can come from savoring that relationship and the unity of being with Christ, then we have to set out about the task of trying to do that which we desire to do and tend to and lay the proper foundations for us to succeed. And that starts, first of all, by taking a courageous step and developing a habit of prayer that is regular and deep and intent and serious. A habit of prayer that develops a relationship with God that sees that as the source of the essence of my being, as the source of my courage and my strength, the go-to in my life to get focus and direction. This relationship with God is so incredibly important to give us what we need to tend to the vineyard we are asked to produce fruit in. And in addition to our own personal habits of prayer, our own spirituality is also essential in never ever turning our backs away from the Eucharist, of seeing the body and blood of Jesus Christ as the source of our courage, our inspiration, our hope, and our love. To see in the sacred scriptures proclaimed the story of our own salvation and to receive the tools we need to bring the wisdom of God out into the world that is so desperately in need of that wisdom.
And so once we buy into the vision and once we're totally convinced that yes, this is where I want to be, this is where we need to be as a people, and once we get our desire for eternal life in check, and we receive the goods that we need through a habit of fervent prayer and a frequent reception of the sacraments, then we will begin to see the good fruit come to fruition. We would have laid the proper foundations and the groundwork. Then, it's no longer acceptable for us to hold a grudge. Then we realize firsthand how important it is to achieve a goal of harmony and peace in our relationships, of being freed up from negativity and anger and working towards forgiveness.
We begin to see how important it is to be a person of virtue and integrity, a person who lives temperately, modestly, and prudently, a person who is more concerned about my neighbor and less concerned about myself. We begin to open our eyes a bit to see not just our own backyards but the backyards of each of my brothers and sisters in all corners of the world, that their concerns become our concerns. And we begin to think more globally than locally. We begin to see the fruit of the kingdom, of the vineyard, when we begin to respect creation, and it's no longer acceptable just to abuse what God has given us, but that we understand completely that we are here to be stewards, not owners; that God has entrusted all of this bounty to our care, to nurture and tend to, and to leave better than we have found it.
Once we begin to see that justice and peace are true realities to be achieved and that God's goods that are given to the world to share are equally acceptable and accessible to all of God's children.
So, the vision of our life begins to get tweaked once we buy into God's kingdom as a vision we want to participate in. And so the question is asked of each one of us today: how much do we truly desire to produce good fruit in God's kingdom? If our answer is made with our full heart, mind, and soul and with an affirmative yes, then we need the groundwork laid so that we can get about the task of seeing that to fruition.
Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Learn more about our parish community at www.isidoreandmaria.org. And follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Our music comes free of charge from Blue Dot Sessions in Fall River, Massachusetts. I’m Carol Vassar. Thanks for joining us.