General. God’s abundance spreads over all humanity which He wants to gather in His vineyard, the Church, which He has prepared with great care for us. May the Lord now forgive our blemish of not accepting His place of hope and bestow upon us His grace and life through the produce of the vine, His life-blood, in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Isaiah says my Beloved One has prepared a vineyard in all, but it was not accepted by most generations living at any time. So he will bring forth destruction upon it and let it go to rot, for he had expected justice and righteousness but only found a blood-spill and shrieking.

Psalm 79. The Psalmist is aware of what has befallen the vine which was uprooted from the Pharoah’s land and planted in the Promised Land. He is now beseeching the Lord to make a come-back and to forget his anger. His chosen people promise not to depart from him any more and to call his Holy Name. ‘Walk us back to our olden days’, they cry out in a sign of hope, ‘enlighten your face and we shall be saved’.

Philippians. St Paul urges his readers not to worry about life’s goings-on but to beseech God about their needs and to be thankful (a Eucharistic theme). His exhortation includes a full list of all such thoughts and doings as constitute a member living in a full-fledged Christian community which resembles God’s peaceful vineyard.

St Matthew. God expects fruit to be produced out of His vineyard and to this end He has sent his Son who was also rejected. People mostly find a comfortable refuge in religion only insofar as things go well, having little if any faith at all when matters go awry and the Cross crops up. Nothing is to be taken forgranted with God whose logic is quite different from that of humanity, who can turn good out of evil and make a rejected stone-piece a corner-stone of His Church on earth. An abundance of fruit by us has to go hand in hand with the abundance of grace which He bestows freely on His chosen people.

Homilies Index Page - Liturgy of the Hours - Home