The gospel teaches the lesson that characterizes the final weeks of the liturgical year. Be prepared, be alert, be awake, have your lamps trimmed for the unexpected coming of Christ. Those who are ready are called wise and that is the lesson for us today. Wake up if you tend to be indifferent and if you miss how Christ comes to us every day in many ways.
We have an important reminder in these words. All of us are insecure. We struggle to do our best. It is so easy to mistake the foundation of our lives in the accruement of power; we think we are doing good for others. Likewise, possessions are often a substitute for the honest, humble living of our faith. To be really one with Christ in all his ways is our only real power. “I live, not I, but Christ lives in me” Paul wrote elsewhere.
Another example in Exodus zeroes in on our economic relationships. For centuries the practice of usury, taking interest on a loan, was deemed to be forbidden. What does this say about how we treat people in a capitalistic society?
Yes, love makes the world go round. It is central to Biblical teaching. We must go beyond the model of teens in love and dive into the deeper, more demanding way of loving that is all consuming and central to life.
It is now mid-October and we are coming to the end of the liturgical year. Some of the scripture readings during these final weeks are what is called “eschatological,” that is they refer to the end times. Final judgement, the after-life, heavenly reward – these are all eschatological topics. A typical image in the scriptures, including the gospels, is a banquet. Fullness, completion, satisfaction are all intended.
Today’s readings from the Sunday liturgy are a contrast first in threat and warning, and secondly, loving advice. The gospel presents a parable about a landowner, his vineyard, and the tenants who work the vineyard. Only at the end do we hear that the vineyard is the kingdom of God, and the landowner obviously God. The tenants have been the people and especially the religious leaders who have not built the kingdom of God but their own domain. They have ignored or rejected the prophets and even God’s own Son. But hope is found in the words of the psalm (118) that “the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone” and that this was all God’s doing to bring good out of failure.
