Home

The Community at Prayer
Reflection by Father Paul M. Baca
October 2, 2011, 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Click to see the readings

     Not too long ago someone asked me about people in the religious right, "What scriptures do they read?" The person asking was more than a little perturbed that some of the real wonderful quotations from scripture were bypassed. Last week the second reading from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians was a case in point, "If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation of the spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being with the same love united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interest but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus."

     As a result of the question that had been posed to me, and that reading from St. Paul, I started reflecting on the many things that are happening in our society that are marginalizing more and more people and creating more and more problems for those who can least afford them. St. Paul's quotation, it seems to me, is but an extension of the commandment of love which Jesus said was the sum and substance of everything in the law and everything spoken by the prophets.

     Sometimes I try to imagine how Almighty God, all knowing that he is, would grade the success of his creation of humankind. The first reading for today is taken from the prophet Isaiah reminding us of all that God has given us in his creation and how we, as a human family, have responded. If we could follow the teachings of Jesus and integrate them into our lives, how different things would be. We have a lot of food for thought in that first reading, "My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower and hewed out a winepress. Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes." Isaiah very plainly and clearly expresses the frustration that he would feel if he were God. "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why when I looked for the crop of grapes did it bring forth wild grapes?" Isaiah continues, telling us how he feels and what he would do if he were God. "Now I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled! Yes, I will make it a ruin. It shall not be pruned or hoed but overgrown with thorns and briars."

     If the prophet Isaiah were living today and would look at the condition of the world and the needless suffering, he might conclude that God had carried out his threat, abandoning his creation and leaving the human family to its own designs. The prophet concludes the reading for today by saying, "He looked for judgment but sees bloodshed! For justice, but hark the outcry!

     It is pretty clear that the state of the world is very much our doing as a human family. We cannot blame God for what has happened and is happening to our society. God gave us his plan but it seems that either we have no time to reflect on that plan or that we have concluded that our ways are better than God's ways.

     I find it worthwhile to reflect on the words of the psalm. "Why have you broken down its walls so that every passerby plucks its fruit? The boar from the forest lays it waste and the beasts of the field feed upon it. Once again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see; take care of this vine and protect what your right hand has planted, the Son of Man whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you; give us new life and we will call upon your name. O Lord, God of hosts, restore us; if your face shine upon us then we shall be saved."

     In a way the readings for today make me feel that God is holding up a mirror and we the human family can look into it and first as we look at the effects of what society has done, then we are given an opportunity to see what we could do with God's help by doing his will.