27th Sunday

Dear Preachers:

Have you ever seen a community garden? They pop up in poor neighborhoods. People with homes have backyards or can afford to buy what they need; but poor people don’t have backyards, nor can they always afford the nutritious food they need.

I have preached in a Harlem parish five times. Harlem is a very dense neighborhood and, for the most part, still poor. There is a garden plot in Harlem that was a vegetable co-op – a community garden. For community gardens neighbors get together and clear the land of rubble and debris. They plant vegetables and flowers and take responsibility for attending the garden. Everyone gets to share whatever they agreed to plant.

If every member is consistent and committed in their efforts, they all benefit and enjoy a shared harvest. If each does not perform their duties regularly and conscientiously the crops fail and it becomes just another weed-choked lot in the city.

Community gardens: Scriptures use a similar image to communicate God’s truth to biblical people and to us. The “community garden” most mentioned in the Bible is a Vineyard – in both old/Hebrew and New Testaments.

The prophet Isaiah speaks of God planting, caring for and protecting a vineyard. It is clear that the Vineyard is a symbol for the people of Israel. The Vineyard symbolizes God’s loving care for them. The people – the Vineyard – come to know God as: the Creator of all; the one who delivers them from slavery; their guide and protector in the desert – whether a real desert, or a time of spiritual testing.

People also came to know God as Israel’s partner in a community garden the people came to call – “the promise land.” Israel is to cooperate with God’s graces and produce the fruits of faithfulness, justice, integrity and holiness. When the people don’t keep up their end of the bargain God sends them prophets, like Isaiah, guardians of the Vineyard, to remind them of what God has done; and what they should do in response to God’s gracious actions on their behalf.

Today’s gospel picks up the familiar Old Testament theme of the Vineyard. The parable we hear today is an invitation to us to think about the quality of our efforts in the Vineyard. Initially, Jesus is challenging the religious leaders of his day for their failures as caretakers of the Vineyard – God’s people. The servants in the story were given much, a carefully planted and protected Vineyard. But the servants over reached in their desire to have it all.

The owner provided all that was needed for a successful harvest: a protective hedge, a wine press, a tower for surveillance/security... And, as partner, asked for a share in the Vineyard. In their greed and laziness, the servants sought to make a claim on what was not theirs.

Couldn’t the gospel story be applied now to our care of the planet? All creation is a gift from God, a gift God loves, has made beautiful for us. We are the privileged tenants. It’s not ours, we don’t own the planet. It has been entrusted to us, and we are privileged to use it and are to be responsible to take care of it. But our care of the planet has faltered. Resources are polluted and overused. For example, in Texas, over 700 chemicals are used in the fracking process to pump oil out of the ground, polluting underground streams in the process. Locals have had to buy bottled water. The Sunday Dallas Morning News attributed earthquake increases to fracking.. Imagine earthquakes in Texas!

God continues to send us modern day Isaiahs, who speak for the care of our community garden. Our Sister’s Congregations and Religious Orders are all too familiar with the stories of our misuse of the precious gifts God has given us in our environment. They and we have heard the bad news. Let’s celebrate how God has not given up on us and sent modern-day voices calling us to be better/responsible caretakers.

Our religious sisters’ congregational webpages show their response the Church’s modern call to works of justice and their care for creation. (E.g).

One symbol that needs no words has moved me. In the Vatican Conference on Climate Change there is the picture of “the Blue Marble (I am sure you have seen it) – the photo taken of the earth during Apollo 17's Luna Mission in 1972. The picture speaks an eloquent message: how would we not want to take care of such a precious gift from our Creator?

Karl Rahner’s appreciation of the divine goodness in creation moved him to his optimistic teaching that: salvation was for the un-baptized as well as the baptized of all ages.

Sister Elizabeth Johnson commenting on that same image of the earth – the Blue Marble – called the network of living things on the planet “the community of creation”, that God created everything out of love.

A word from our Dominican tradition: the mystic Meister Eckhart, who lived in the 13^th century, taught that, “Every creature is a word of God.” In another place he says, “If we could have known God without creation, then God would never have created the universe.

– So, the created universe is central to our understanding of God, a prime source of revelation.

A sign of God’s patience and forgiveness is that God never ceases sending us prophets, calling us back to be responsible tenants in the Vineyard God has planted for us.

Polluted resources; global warming; shrinking rainforests; ice caps melting, over consumption.... All from lack of stewardship. We have not been good partners with the owner of the Vineyard. So, few enjoy so much from over consumption; while so many hunger for even basic nutritional needs. The Earth is our “community garden.” We, the tenants in the Vineyard are partners with God, the gift has been given, and it is our responsibility to care for it.

In the ordinary daily use of resources today what role will we play in preserving, or depleting the gifts God has given us? We pray at this Mass to be better caretakers of all God’s gifts. We celebrate the prophetic voices God continually sends to us, for God has not given up on us.

Here our faith is fed through Word and Sacrament. Here our stewardship is challenged, and we are fed to fulfill our responsibilities as tenants in God’s Vineyard.

“Care for creation therefore represents a true vocation for every human being.”

Mini-reflections on the Sunday scripture readings designed for persons on the run. “Faith Book” is also brief enough to be posted in the Sunday parish bulletins people take home.

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?

The stone rejected by the builders becomes the cornerstone. Jesus himself is the clearest example: rejected, suffering, and crucified, yet raised by God and made the foundation of our faith. God can take what others dismiss, overlook, or consider useless and give it new purpose. This can give us hope when we feel rejected or when our efforts seem insignificant. God may be doing something wonderful in places and people we are tempted to overlook.

“One has to strongly affirm that condemnation to the death penalty is an inhuman measure that humiliates personal dignity, in whatever form it is carried out.”

Inmates on death row are the most forgotten people in the prison system. Each week I am posting in this space several inmates’ names and locations. I invite you to write a postcard to one or more of them to let them know that: we have not forgotten them; are praying for them and their families; or whatever personal encouragement you might like to give them. If the inmate responds, you might consider becoming pen pals.

(While the prison is in Raleigh mail for inmates is processed at this address)

For more information on the Catholic position on the death penalty go to the Catholic Mobilizing Network: http://catholicsmobilizing.org

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