Homily by Fr. Zenon Racki on the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!

This Sunday, we all heard the parable of the vineyard and the wicked tenants. From the very beginning, Jesus Christ tells us that the landowner did everything that was needed: he planted a vineyard, put a fence around it so that wild animals could not enter, and then entrusted it to the tenants. We can say that the vineyard represents the whole world, but in its original meaning, the Lord entrusted the care of the vineyard to the people of Israel in the Old Testament.

While enjoying all the gifts that God had given them in the vineyard, they eventually turned away from God. Then God sent His messengers — the prophets and holy people — to bring the people of Israel back to Him and return them to the true God. And in the end, God so loved this world and all those who benefited from this vineyard that He even sent His only Son.

What great regard God showed them, what love, what respect for the workers in the vineyard, that He sent them His only-begotten Son. God the Father said that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will have eternal life. But they decided: this is our property — God’s vineyard.

We know how things ended for Israel in the Old Testament, but today we live in the New Testament. Who, then, are the people of the New Testament? We are. We are called to bear fruit. What kind of fruit should we bear? What can we do if practically everything has already been done before us? What is our calling? It is to learn to honour the Lord God always and continually, so that when the Lord comes to the vineyard, we will know how to give Him the fruits that are due to Him. If we build a church, Christ must be present in it. If Jesus Christ is not there, it is only an ordinary building.

We may think that we are good people, but when our lives are not centred on Jesus Christ, we can be mistaken. In our world today, we see cases where someone has distanced themselves from the Church and says, “I understand the Holy Scriptures better than anyone else. I know best, and everyone else is wrong.” “This is mine,” they say, and then they no longer allow anyone else in. We see movements and sects like this which, outwardly, may appear good and may seem to serve the Lord God, but they have already begun to regard that vineyard as their own property. Yet the Church always belongs to the Lord God. Even those who serve Him and are close to Him, if they become absorbed in themselves and in the vineyard instead of being devoted to the Lord God and serving Him, can fall so far that, from being workers who were called to serve, they become wrongdoers and people who seek to use God for their own purposes.

Therefore, let us ask the Lord God to help each of us remember that our soul, our heart and even our every breath are all great gifts. Your life, your story, is also a vineyard planted by the Lord God. And the Lord God is near, waiting for us, so that, making use of everything He has given us, we may be happy and may know how to give Him glory, honour, the respect that is due to Him, and our gratitude.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

See also

June 6 Homily by Fr. Zenon Racki on the Second Sunday after Pentecost March 14 Homily by Fr. Zenon Racki on the Fourth Sunday of the Great Lent January 3 Homily by Fr. Zenon Racki on the Sunday before Theophany