About 10
years ago, I had a funeral for a long-time parishioner of St. Clare. His name
was Lenny Giuliani, and when I met with the family to plan the funeral, I
learned that Lenny had been a winemaker. Making wine wasn’t his profession, but
a hobby that he took very seriously; his family called him the “Einstein of
Wines” because he was extremely scientific in perfecting his wines. His
daughters brought me a few bottles of Lenny’s wine and suggested that I try
them, and let them know my honest opinion, because their father loved
constructive criticism.
So, a few
days after the funeral, I opened his bottle of red, a blend of several
different grapes noted on the label, with the precise percentage of each noted. And I’m no connoisseur, but I could tell
that I was drinking something special, the culmination of a life’s work, a work
of art.
Good food and good wine can certainly
rise to the level of art. And Lenny’s wine was certainly artfully made. He
developed these wines, painstakingly, and shared the fruits of his labors with
family and friends. And for that, the world was blessed. In this digital age,
when we are tempted to spend our waking hours, and our so-called “free time” in
front of screens, we probably need to be a bit more like Lenny. To produce
something with our hands, with our minds, that can be given away to bring some
joy in this increasingly joyless world.
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop as
proverbs says. And so a hobby, a craft, done artfully and carefully can be a excellent
means of avoiding the near occasion of sin of laziness, and can bring something
good into the world.
I thought of Lenny’s wine this weekend,
for one because we hear of vineyards and grapes in our scripture readings, also
because it’s the anniversary of Lenny’s funeral this week. But also because our
Scripture readings really do urge us to consider how we use our time, how we
spend our life—how we use the time we’ve been given…to be a blessing to
others…or not.
In today’s First Reading Isaiah describes
God’s displeasure with Israel. The Lord had prepared Israel to be a fine
vineyard—a vineyard of holy souls that should have yielded the highest quality
grapes. God had given Israel the Law,
the Torah, he had delivered the Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt, and
placed them in the promised Land, he had sent them prophets to help them be his
holy people. And yet, what did they do with those blessings? what did they do
to the prophets?
Rather than yielding the lush, juicy
grapes of faithfulness, justice and peace, Israel had produced wild sour grapes
of infidelity, false worship, ignorance of the scriptures, and injustice toward
the poor.
Shame on Israel, right? Well, the
pattern of Israel’s sin, is of course, ours as well. God has given us all we
need to be saints. The Scriptures, the Holy Tradition of the Apostles, the
Sacraments, the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And of course, many of us have seen
tremendously good fruit in our lives and among our fellow Catholics: the joy
that comes from serving and caring for others, the peace that comes from
mending broken relationships, the development of virtues. And yet, the rotten
fruit of infidelity can still be detected: selfishness, hatred, souls given
over to lust, greed, wrath, pride, envy, gluttony, and sloth. Chronic crankiness
and bitterness, stinginess, are usually signs that we’ve let self-absorption
take the place of Christian self-donation.
The Word of God challenges us to
ensure that we are doing what we can to weed out the bad and nurture the
good—to tend the field of our soul—to uproot the rotten vines lest they
takeover the vineyards of our lives. For the Lord has chosen us “to go and bear
fruit that will remain.”
The Gospel Parable of the Tenants
today also challenges us to consider what lessons from God that we have
rejected. In the parable, we read of the wicked tenants who rejected the
vineyard owner’s servant and then rejected and killed the vineyard owner’s son.
The Lord Jesus issued this parable to
the chief priests and elders of Israel. Jesus was helping them understand that
they were like those wicked tenants—not only had they rejected the message of
the prophets, they were also rejecting the vineyard owner’s son—the Son of God—in
the rejection of his teachings.
Shame on the chief priests and elders,
right? Well, again: how about us? We see baptized Catholics forsaking the
faith, and acting like they might catch on fire if they stepped into Church.
Amongst the Protestants, heresy has spread like wild-fire—they’ve lost the
eucharist, the priesthood, confession, sacramental anointing and some of them
don’t even practice baptism anymore, not to mention the moral teachings they
have rejected. And many Catholics aren’t much better, picking and choosing
which teachings they’ll adhere to like choices in a buffet line.
Rather, this Gospel calls us to ensure
that we reject nothing of what comes from God, particularly the teachings of
the Son of God. To repent of sin and bear fruit that will last. And as we
accept and apply the teachings of Christ, we experience more deeply his peace. As
St. Paul says, “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
The world doesn’t understand how
practicing self-control, and self-constraint in the face of temptation brings
peace, but it does. How practicing obedience to Church teaching and
self-sacrifice, giving of our time talent and treasure can bring us peace, but
it does. We have the saints, and every Christian who takes this stuff seriously
to prove it. Peace and joy.
This week, we began again the month of
October. October is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Rosary, as the Feast of
the Holy Rosary, is celebrated on October 7. I encourage you to take up the
rosary this month, especially if you are not in the habit of doing so, to pray
the rosary for the good of our parish, the needs of the world, especially those
who reject Christ and do not know his peace.
Ask for Our Lady’s help in putting the
teachings of Christ into practice in your life, in discovering new ways the
Lord is calling you to serve his kingdom, perhaps simply like Lenny, to perfect
some art that can bring joy to others, or some ministry that needs to be
strengthened in our parish, or to help you be more attentive to those whom God
has given you gifts to serve, to assist and help. Or maybe, you need Our Lady’s
help to lift you out of a place of discouragement or habitual sin. The rosary
is a powerful way of seeking God’s help to overcome these things.
Avail yourself to the help of heaven
in overcoming sin and pursuing the sanctity for which you were made, for the
glory of God and the salvation of souls.
