The Faithfulness of Friends

October 5: Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus:5 Steps to a Fuller Life... Step Five).

The Faithfulness of Friends

“My friend had a vineyard...” (Isaiah 5:1)

The readings begin, “My friend…” Or “My beloved…”  They make sense only if God is our beloved friend, whose feelings we care about. They talk about the waste of his vineyard, the rejection of his messengers, the murder of his son. We feel like telling him to give up on tenant farmers and get out of the wine business.

But he chooses to try again. And we are the ones he turns to. Jesus says, “I have chosen you from the world, to go and bear fruit that will remain” (see Alleluia verse, John 15:16).

Jesus counts on us to be faithful tenants, stewards, managers of his vineyard. But he does not “call us servants any longer.” He says “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Our obedience is love; we work, not for Jesus as servants, but with him as friends.

Friends share thoughts. Jesus says, “I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.” In union with the beloved Son, we serve the Father. As partners. As friends, united in mind by faith; in will and desire by hope; in heart by love.

Our call is to be “good stewards of the multihued grace of God” (1Peter 4:10): to fill the world with new faith, new hope, new love. With new wine: the Good News.

PRAY: “Here I am, Lord, send me.”

PRACTICE: Cultivate union of heart with Jesus.