27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 4 Homily

The parable Jesus tells in today’s Gospel is addressed to the “chief priests and the elders of the people”. Of course this was the same body of people, who would reject Jesus as the Messiah and call for Him to be crucified before Herod. And so, it was to them that Jesus addresses this not-so-veiled parable.

Now, just to make sure everybody’s on the same page, the landowner is the God – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The vineyard represents the Jewish people, whom God delivered from slavery in Egypt – as the responsorial psalm puts it today, “A vine from Egypt you transplanted; you drove away the nations and planted it.” Then, at harvest time, God first sends His servants, that is, the Old Testament prophets. And in history, we know that they indeed killed Isaiah, stoned Jeremiah, pursued Elijah, and beheaded John the Baptist. And clearly the son sent by God, is none other than the very Son of God, who came by the will of the Father to His vineyard, the Jewish people. It was Him the people would seize and crucify outside the city of Jerusalem.

Now, in the parable, the tenants thought they would get a monetary inheritance by rejecting and killing the son. However, Jesus reveals what will ultimately happen to those who reject the Son – the kingdom of God will be taken away from them. But to those who would accept Him and believe in Him, His Father would work all things for good by bringing about their eternal salvation through His very death and resurrection on the cross.

Now, we might think to ourselves, “Why would the landowner send his son, knowing how the tenants of the vineyard treated the servants? Didn’t he know they would do the same or worse to him?” Similarly, perhaps we wonder about God, “Why did the Father send His only-begotten Son to us, knowing how our ancestors in the faith had treated the prophets and other people of God? Why? Love.

Now when we think of one reality, it often calls to mind its opposite. Let’s try this out: Tall...short. Happy...sad. Love...hate. And, at first that last one might sound right. I mean, God the Father perfectly loves His children, sinners though we are. And yet it was out of hatred that lawless men crucified His Beloved Son. But on a much deeper level, I would propose to you, in the words of St. John Paul II, that the opposite of love is not to hate someone, but rather to use that person. To use someone means to treat them as a means for an end – to treat them as an object to get what you want – to objectify them. This powerful teaching was illustrated in John Paul II’s book, Love and Responsibility.

Now certainly when I use that word objectify, you might be able to imagine what I’m getting at. One of the first things that come to mind when I say objectifying someone is to lust after someone. By lust, a person is not treated as a human being with the full dignity that is theirs, as a subject. Rather, they are reduced to particular body parts or physical features – an object.

Using someone, however, clearly goes much further than that. We can use someone to get what we want – maybe a job or a promotion at work – to get ahead. Or we can use another for a friendship of convenience if the friend we really want to hang out with isn’t available.

I’ve been noticing this type of stuff more and more as the years go by. And I’m afraid that we’re becoming too familiar with using others – not treating them with the full dignity that is theirs. The cashier at the grocery store – treated just like a cash register with arms. The person on the other end of the line of customer service – treated with annoyance. An athlete on a sports team – just someone to score points.

The sad reality of this culture of using others is that it ultimately leads to the culture of death, as people get more and more selfish and self-absorbed. Is a baby in= her mother’s womb, at whatever stage of development, a sacred life to be preserved? Or is it a thing that can be disposed of if she’s not wanted or convenient or has a birth defect? Is a terminally ill person at the end of his life still worthy of compassion and dignity as he unites his sufferings to Christ Crucified, who died for him? Or is he a burden on the health care system and is going to die anyway? Can we manufacture human life to create the perfect child or a designer baby? Or, are we to love each person as the unique, irrepeatible gift that they are?

My friends, during October in a special way, we celebrate Respect Life Month. Respecting life is something that must do if we are to truly be Christians. To respect someone is not to treat them as an object, but to see them in the full dignity that is theirs. In the words of Pope John Paul II: “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of the Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His son.”

How we treat our family members and complete strangers; how we support charitable causes; even how we vote in our elections – these are all ways that we can concretely respect life. All of this is about the culture we are creating. Either we protect and promote life, or we will end up using and destroying it. God bless you.