Sunday, October 4, 2020
HOMILY: 27TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 2020
The very first impression that I have since I came to these parishes is the way you have received me and the best accommodation that you have provided for me. The rectory was neat and clean. The church building is properly maintained. The ambiance is very welcoming. It must be very sacred place to these people. I think I have to give my best shot to this community. I have to serve them to the best of my ability. I have to maintain properly what had been entrusted to me. As much as possible, there should be no scratches on the wall, no unnecessary hammering of nails on the walls for my personal frames and decorations. Thank you for providing a cozy place to stay, thank you for your hospitality. I am indeed very grateful for all of your kindness.
We are now on the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the readings are asking us to reflect on the vineyard of the Lord which refers to our community. Our community is greatly blessed with material and spiritual riches. Isaiah rendered us a love song about the vineyard of the Lord. It is a fertile hill planted with choice vines, built a watchtower and expecting to yield grapes. This is our land rich in both agriculture and natural resources. This is a place where people are living in harmony. It is a community where everybody feels secure anytime of the day because we believe that everyone is friend to one another. However, the greatest blessing that we are enjoying in this land is the gift of faith. We believe that God who is the source of love for our family; it is Christian faith that binds us together and it is faith that gives us true happiness and hope for eternal life.
This vineyard must be a praying community. Saint Paul in his Letter to the Philippians exhorts us not to worry about anything but in everything by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. In our community we have a lot of things to be thankful than to worry. Prayer is an act of thanksgiving for all the blessings that God has poured in our community. It is an act of adoration by humbly submitting our life to our creator and redeemer. It is an act of supplication to ask Him to continue protect our land and make it bountiful for all season. Prayer is an act of repentance that we may not abuse our resources but make it use to love Him supporting our church and sharing what we have to the destitute.
There will be reckoning in the vineyard of the Lord. The gospel of Matthew tells us about the landowner sending his servants and his son to collect his produce. The gifts that had been given to us have corresponding responsibility and accountability. This abundance that we are savouring has its own purpose according to the designs of God. There is only one question that our creator will ask us at the end of time. Did you feel the world with love your whole life through? Let us ponder on this question, let us live our life on this question.