- Feb 5, 2002
- 166,654
- 56,276
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Others
SCRIPTURES & ART: A look at the readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, through the eyes of Flemish Renaissance painter Marten van Valkenborch
Marten van Valkenborch, “Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen,” ca. 1680-1690 (photo: Public Domain)
Last week, we took a parable visit to a father’s vineyard, in which he invited two sons to work. One refused, only to change his mind; the other pretended obedience, only to slack off.
We saw how that parable illustrated the tension in the Israel of Jesus’s day between the self-righteous Pharisees, convinced of their religious credentials, and the “public sinners” who sometimes heard the call to conversion and “changed their minds” to go into the Father’s vineyard.
This week, we visit another vineyard with another son. This vineyard has been sublet to tenant farmers, whose obligation it is to turn over the harvest to the vineyard owner. But those tenants have gotten used to their digs, feeling more at home there than its owner. And they have no intention of honoring their obligations.
The owner bought and invested in a vineyard. Maybe it contained no buried treasure, but the owner was ready to put money and sweat equity into it. He improved it: he planted grapes; he delineated his property with a hedge; he built infrastructure (a watchtower and a winepress) to protect and process his harvest. And he hires workers.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Last week, we took a parable visit to a father’s vineyard, in which he invited two sons to work. One refused, only to change his mind; the other pretended obedience, only to slack off.
We saw how that parable illustrated the tension in the Israel of Jesus’s day between the self-righteous Pharisees, convinced of their religious credentials, and the “public sinners” who sometimes heard the call to conversion and “changed their minds” to go into the Father’s vineyard.
This week, we visit another vineyard with another son. This vineyard has been sublet to tenant farmers, whose obligation it is to turn over the harvest to the vineyard owner. But those tenants have gotten used to their digs, feeling more at home there than its owner. And they have no intention of honoring their obligations.
The owner bought and invested in a vineyard. Maybe it contained no buried treasure, but the owner was ready to put money and sweat equity into it. He improved it: he planted grapes; he delineated his property with a hedge; he built infrastructure (a watchtower and a winepress) to protect and process his harvest. And he hires workers.
Continued below.
Here’s What Today’s Gospel, the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen, Is All About
SCRIPTURES & ART: A look at the readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, through the eyes of Flemish Renaissance painter Marten van Valkenborch
