October 7-8

27TH Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Ever Patient God! Every Patient Me?

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

I wonder…what was the landowner thinking when He sent His son into the vineyard? Who in their right mind would do that after seeing that two sets of servants sent to collect the rent were beaten, stoned, and killed? Rather than send a beloved son, would it not be sensible to send in authorities to arrest and prosecute the wicked tenants? How are we to interpret this parable?

What our Lord is doing is giving us an image of salvation history. Today’s reading from the Prophet Isaiah, describes Israel as a vineyard that the Lord cultivated with great patience and goodness. Just as the landowner sent servants into the vineyard, so did God throughout history send his servants, the prophets, to his people—the vineyard of Israel—to call them to fidelity and holiness of life. And just as the tenants maltreated, resisted, rejected, and even put to death the servants sent by the landowner, so did Israel treat the prophets sent by God.

But God then did the unimaginable—just as the landowner finally sent his own Son into the vineyard, so the Eternal Father sent Jesus, his Beloved Son, into the world, who would suffer the same fate.

This parable also reveals how patient God is with us even through we deserve punishment because of our sins. It reminds us that God never gives up on us. The landowner sent servant after servant. He did not come down with sudden vengeance when they were maltreated and even killed. He offered the tenants another chance to respond to his appeal. This is the way God is with us.

Pope Francis once pointed out how Jesus was patient even with Judas. Jesus knew that Judas was not interested in helping the poor but helping himself. But Jesus did not call him a thief. To the end he sought to draw Judas to himself.

Fr. Henri Nouwen wrote: God says to us, “I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me.” God’s patience is meant to develop us, to mold us, to refine and stretch us to become the disciples we are called to be. Our challenge is to allow God to do this; not to resist his working in us so that we might move away from sin and move toward virtue.

The parable also invites us to consider how we should be patient with others. If God is patient with our sins and foibles, should we not be patient with others? This is a challenge, to be sure, since there will always be people who rub us the wrong way, get on our nerves, provoke us, and simply “drive us up the wall.” Of course, the reverse is true—we can have the same effect on others!

We can be more patient with others when in humility we recognize our own sins and failings. When this happens, it becomes harder for me to flare up at the mistakes and foibles of another. We are less inclined to point an accusing finger at another. I come to realize that God is at work in them just as he is at work in me.

How grateful we can be for God’s patience with us, and let us pray that we might in turn be patient with others. Be careful though, NOT to pray as did a less-than patient wife who kept this petition in her prayer book:

"Dear Lord, Give me wisdom to understand my husband. Give me love to forgive him. Give me patience for his moods. Because, Lord, if I don’t have your strength, I’ll just beat him to a pulp.”