Reaping what we sow

Readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

You reap what you sow. We see that clearly in the Gospel today. The violence and greed of the tenants blinded them to the foolishness of their plan. How could they even have thought that if they killed the landowner’s son, somehow, that would entitle them to wealth and security for themselves? Instead, it led just to more violence and their own destruction and death.

Yet, in the first reading from Isaiah, we see that the vineyard grower did everything possible to ensure a fruitful harvest, sowing nothing but goodness. And still, the grapes could not be tamed.

Evil and suffering come not from God. God, the vine grower, has given everything, even his own flesh, in the hope that we would bear good fruit. Rather, the ruin that plagues humanity happens for many reasons. Some we can’t explain; none we can rationalize as God’s doing. Most often, however, the reason is clear. Our actions made out of greed and self-preservation, our choice for violence and anger over non-resistance and surrender to God’s tender care—perhaps most importantly, our indifference and inaction to stop violence when we see it—reap only bloodshed and outcry.

What do we imagine the harvest will be if we continue to sow violence against one another?

This post was first published on the planner page for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal,” Vol 28, No 3.

Image credit: Pan Xiaozhen, unsplash, CC0.