by Fr. Tommy Lane
In that parable the landowner sent servants many times to collect the produce of the vineyard. But each time the servants were killed. The servants represent the prophets of the Old Testament who paid for preaching the Word of God by being killed violently. Then the landowner sent his son, referring to Jesus who was also killed. Then the landowner took the vineyard from those tenants and gave it to other tenants. If we see the vineyard in the parable as the Church, the parable is a symbolic way of saying that the Church would consist not just of the chosen people, the Jews, but would consist of all peoples. But what does the parable mean for us today? Obviously it can take on many meanings for us today, but as I thought about it I couldn’t but help thinking of certain events in recent years that the parable reminds me of.
If the vineyard is the Church and we are the tenants, then God wants us to give him produce from his vineyard, the Church. God sent his servants, the prophets in the Old Testament and when God sent his Son Jesus, God did not stop communicating with us then. God continues to communicate with us in many ways. There are many ways in which God continues to send servants to us, the tenants of his vineyard, to encourage us to collect the produce from the vineyard, the Church. What are some of these ways in which God sent servants to us, tenants of his vineyard, in recent years asking us to produce fruit from the vineyard? All the following examples are approved by the Church as trustworthy and reliable.
In Cochabumba, Bolivia, a statue shed tears of blood. When analyzed by cat scan in a hospital it was found that the surface of the statue was solid and the center filled with air, no liquid or mechanism of any kind.
In Blanco, Texas, a Vladimir icon of the Mother of God in a Greek orthodox monastery weeps tears and sweet-scented myrrh. After careful investigation it has been authenticated by the Greek orthodox authorities. One of the monks has said, “It is God’s way of calling us back, waking us from our stupor, to show us that God is the centre of the universe.” Sometimes it weeps many times a day. On occasions when the world is troubled the statue bleeds more than normal. It is visited by thousands and many have been miraculously healed.
In recent years a statue of Our Lady wept blood many times in Civitavecchia, north west of Rome. The local bishop, Mons Grilli, was very skeptical at first but changed his opinion when he visited the statue and it bled as he held it in his hand. He said, “This is a message for everyone…The phenomenon cries out to the whole world to dry the tears our mother sheds for all the sins in the world today.”
In Syracuse in Sicily in 1953 a statue shed tears and among its many visitors was a Polish bishop, Karol Wojtyla, in Rome for the Second Vatican Council, who later became Pope John Paul II. As Pope he returned to the statue, now the Shrine of Our Lady of Tears, and said, “The tears of the Madonna belong to the order of signs. She is a mother crying out when she sees her children threatened by a spiritual or physical evil.”
All of these events show matter being produced out of nothing and cannot be explained by science. It shows that the greatest scientist of all is God. Those investigating weeping statues noticed that if they prayed when a statue was weeping tears of blood the tears turned to normal faint tears. They say if the world prays the tears will dry up completely.
The messages given by Our Lady to Sr Agnes Sasagawa in her convent in 1973 in a village outside Akita, Japan, were approved by the local bishop and later by the Vatican as being reliable and worthy of belief. Among the messages which Sr Agnes received was the following,
“if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.”
“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.”
Notice that the warning is
conditional. We are not told the
punishment will definitely come, it will come only “if men do not repent and
better themselves.” Although this may sound very serious and even depressing
we cannot dismiss this warning. In
June 1988, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, gave a definitive judgment on the Akita events (statue in
convent wept 101 times) and messages and found them reliable and worthy of
belief.
The parable in our Gospel reminds us that in the Old Testament, God sent servants, his prophets, and then sent his Son, Jesus. God continues to send messages to us, to call us to produce fruit from the vineyard. If we accept these events found to be authentic by the Church, it seems that God is sending many servants to us in the last number of years asking us to produce fruit from the vineyard.
I conclude with Jesus’ words in John 15:16, “I chose you from the world to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
This homily was delivered when I was engaged in parish ministry in Ireland before joining the faculty of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland.
More homilies for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday Year A
What type of Vineyard Tenants Are We?
God Continues to Call us to Bear Fruit
Producing Fruit for the Kingdom
Related Homilies: Bearing Fruit - Our love is not to be just words or mere talk