In a nutshell, this week's Gospel from Matthew makes a dramatic and clear statement (without every speaking of it, unlike Mark's Gospel) about God and His people - us - and about God?s claim on our produce, the good works we are called to perform, that it is absolute.

God has sent messengers (first reading) to His people throughout human history to claim some of their "produce"? their good works and adherence to following Him faithfully -yet some of the people throughout history have refused to "pay up," as in Israel God's messengers were often resisted and rejected.
But the landowner in this gospel also sends out His son, thinking that the people will listen to Him. They do not (Matthew changes up the wording from Mark's Gospel noting that the son was first thrown out of the vineyard and then killed. This is considered symbolism in the connecting of Jesus being taken to Jerusalem to be crucified.

In this weekend's gospel, Jesus asks the chief priests and the elders what should happen to the tenant farmers who refused to give the landowner (God) some of the produce (their good works). The chief priests and the elders answer, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Here, the chief priests and the elders have convicted themselves! They acknowledge the unfaithful acts of the tenant farmers and of the right and proper judgment of God on their
behavior and actions?the same behavior and actions that the religious leaders of the day were guilty of; they have failed to further the growth of the Kingdom of God and have in fact impeded God's action rather than encourage it.
Jesus says to the religious leaders, "The Kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit." This judgment is not delivered with anger by Jesus but rather with a ?solemn judgment? of one whose
love has been rebuffed and must now seek another with whom to share it.
This gospel message must resonate with us in the modern world. What are we doing to help the Kingdom of God take hold in the hearts of those around us? Do we help build up the Church that God called to be His light and love on earth or do we either impede it actively by deciding we know better than the Church or do we simply let idle inaction steer our lives? Do we actively pass on the gift of faith that has been given to us - from our parents and grandparents - or do we become the broken link in the family fence that has practiced the faith for decades. And why have we decided to end or break the familiar carrying on of our faith? What's so much more important on a Sunday than practicing our faith (and all week long)? A bagel? Soccer? A long walk or hike along the trail?

The Catholic faith is unique is so many ways. First, it educates us to the ways of God and then asks us to use our free will to accept it and carry it forward. The Catholic faith, which is universal, then offers us hundreds if not thousands of ministries in which to actively practice our faith. It?s not just a one-size fits all. Even in its practice of the liturgy, the Mass, it does not hold us to one or two times per weekend -it offers us two days, with many, many options to come and praise and honor God for the blessings of this life - it gives us such freedom in the modes and times to practice our faith that there should be no love-loss of God for each and every one of us.

That is not to say that there are not differences among the faithful, or that there is not sincere confusion on what the Church teaches on some topics. Sometimes the confusion is caused by the Church herself - the language she uses or the way in which she delivers her messages; sometimes the confusion is caused by a very uneducated secular media that pronounces knowledge on Church teachings; politicians who restate theological teachings to feel better about their personal choices; and sometimes the confusion is more close to home - either "nana" misspoke on a teaching or I formed my own flawed knowledge of a hard-to-understand topic. But no matter, in God there is always mercy. And in His Church there is always a way to learn and come to the truth-which will lead us all to the vineyard of plenty: plenty to do, and more than plenty to receive from His loving heart.