Each of us has been given a vineyard from God in which to work and to produce good fruits: our families, our marriages, our work places, the community in which we live, even our church parishes. We have also been instructed not only of what we are to do with the various vineyards given to us, but how we are to accomplish this work. Over the centuries God has enlightened us with His Wisdom and taught us what to do so that the fruit we produce in the here-and-now will benefit us in the Eternal Vineyard. Maybe we do great harvesting in our personal vineyards, but what about the bigger picture, the big Vineyard? The personal question for our own reflection after hearing this Gospel account is this: How am I planting and what am I harvesting?

Now certainly this gospel is a story that speaks to the failures of the religious leaders of Israel—the Pharisees and the Scribes as well as the treatment by the leaders and the people together of the prophets who carried the message of enlightenment to God’s people. Time and time again the Father sends His Love and His Wisdom to all, but it is rejected by the leaders and the workers. Finally, He sends His Son and heir, but He too is rejected.

The gospel today tells us a few specifics about God:

1. God desires us to participate in His earthly kingdom by taking what we have been given and use it for the benefit of those who are less fortunate. To produce the much needed fruits of His Kingdom and to share with those who have not.

2. He sends His help—Wisdom, Love and Grace—over and over again and yet the people reject and even kill His “help,” but still He does not abandon or give up on us, rather He eternally sends His love and continues to seek us. This tells us a lot about our God—and of His hope for you and for me. And in these troubling and uncertain times, in the midst of the pandemic, the political unrest, and in the fear of natural disasters—if Jesus came to us today, how would we receive Him? Would we listen? Would we follow? Or would we reject Him as the elders of Israel did? What does this say about us?

We might be able to find the answers to those questions by looking to vineyards we have all been given. And not just our own vineyards—the smaller yet ever import “pieces of land” in which we’ve been placed, but also in the greater Vineyard—the “land” that is home to humankind—those people whom we do not know but yet with whom we share the Vineyard/the Kingdom in the making: those all along the Gulf Coast hit by storms; sister and brothers in Haiti, the poorest nation on earth and only 700 miles off our coast, and who are hungry and dirt poor each day, year after year; the sick who stand outside the vans of the Malta House of care; the troubled youth without hope and direction—caused either by poverty or too much privilege; the drug addicted and the working poor who see no way out or up?

Surely this might seem overwhelming at times: Just paying the bills and “keeping up with the Joneses” is hard and exhausting enough. And He expects more of me? Well, yes, He does! But He does not abandon us. He provides for all we need to work in the vineyards. His Grace is sufficient and abundant—are we asking for His help, do we accept it?

The Church provides the conduit for God’s Grace, that’s why He created her. Do we regularly receive His Body and His Wise Words at Mass? Do we seek His Mercy and strength in Reconciliation? Do we join in the community of believers (the Mystical Body of Christ) and gain our collective and like-minded power to move forward in and through prayer? These and much more are the conduits to the world run amuck.

It’s all here. It’s all His—and He sends it time-and-time again, without fail, through His Church—which is you, me—and HIM—collectively united and universal, strengthened by His Love. Let’s go plant His seeds of love, hope, wisdom, and action at home and abroad, harvesting the vineyard. “Individually we don’t have to do everything, but everyone is called to harvest something.”