27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Oct 4-5, 2014)

Because the interpretation of the imagery in today's gospel is relatively self- apparent, '?d like to diverge a bit and present the Homily as if I were writing a newspaper review about a new Broadway Show?

A new Broadway drama, "The Wicked", opens to great acclaim in the Gershwin Theatre tomorrow night at 8 pm.
The play takes place in the 1 ^st Century city of Jerusalem, with the opening scene occurring on Monday, the day after Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem.

The play begins with a flashback, which allows us to gain some perspective on the jubilant greeting that Jesus received as he entered his most Holy City. The flashback allows us to envision what it would be like to mingle with the large crowd as it gathered to greet Jesus. We are able to join them in their anticipation of catching a glimpse of the man who might be the long-awaited for Messiah. We can easily imagine bursting into shouts of joy and join the crowd as it chants over and over again, "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the highest blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

I found the first act of "The Wicked" to be extremely riveting, because it pits the authority of the establishment, the chief priests and Pharisees, against that of a single man - Jesus. The dialogue allows us to hear the Pharisees express their frustrations and concerns as Jesus' popularity rises. As one of the ruling parties, they demand to know who granted Jesus the authority to teach, authority to heal, and the authority to forgive.

Jesus cleverly responds to their question by sharing three parables, each one carefully crafted to help the hearers gain a better understanding of God and to gain a better understanding of their relationship with God.

The second act showcases the centerpiece of the trilogy. The dialogue begins with the phrase, "Hear another parable." The use of a parable is an ingenious way to politely shake things up, to get under people's skin and to motivate them to see things in a different light. Such is the case when Jesus uses the phrase, "Hear another parable." The use of that phrase is the equivalent of pointing a finger at the chief priests and Pharisees and politely saying, "I know that you, who are the most wise and the learned, didn't grasp the meaning of the 1 ^st parable that I shared, so let me tell another."

A vineyard was personally cultivated by a landowner who did so with an abundance of love and patience. He carefully took all the necessary steps to ensure a bountiful harvest. When he finished preparing the land, he leased the vineyard to tenants who were responsible for continuing his good work through harvest time.

The tenants agreed to work the vineyard for pay or for a percentage of the profits. In addition, they were appointed stewards of the land - but only for a while. However, at some point they got greedy. They wanted all of the land and all of the benefits that came from harvesting the fruit. They wanted full control and authority. They wanted everything and they wanted it their way.

As harvest time drew near, the stewards schemed and plotted, and eventually devised a plan to kill all those sent by the landowner to collect his profits.

With utmost patience and mercy, the landowner made three attempts to collect what belonged to him. All three attempts were unsuccessful; but the results of the third attempt proved to be more devastating than the first two; because the third attempt resulted in the death of the landowner's son!

The climax of the second act occurs when Jesus turns to the chief priests and the Pharisees and asks, "Tell me, what do you expect the owner will do to those tenants when he returns?"

With their back against the wall and no way out, they were forced to utter a very self-incriminating response: "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper time."

Over time the wicked tenants became disgruntled and confused stewardship with ownership. They thought they could wrestle ownership away from the landowner. They thought that by killing his son they would inherit the land. They thought they could produce good fruit without asking for God's help. They thought incorrectly.

Not unlike the tenants, the Pharisees were truly treacherous individuals. They should have been the first group to recognize that the authority given to both John the Baptist and Jesus came directly from God the Father, but they could not. As a result, the authority they so coveted was taken from them and was given to others so that they might harvest good fruit.

The focal point of the play is to impress on the audience that only God, who is pure love can produce good fruit. Violence won't produce good fruit; greed won't produce good fruit; not being in a right relationship with God won't produce good fruit; ignoring the stirring of the Holy Spirit in our lives won't produce good fruit.

In addition, good fruit can't be harvested by those who are concerned with lining their pockets with money; nor by those who unjustly take the seat of honor at a banquet, nor by those who stand in the marketplace and allow others to place them on a pedestal.

In grand fashion, the second act of the play concludes with the son of the landowner miraculously being restored to his rightful place. He has been brought back to life and now sits at the right hand of the Father. Jesus, the one whom the world rejected, conquered death and has become the cornerstone of our faith.

To him we owe all of our love. To him we owe our allegiance. To him we must bend our knee and adore him as our Lord and Savior; for he is our everlasting God and through him we will produce good fruit. And our reward will be significant - for he has prepared a place for each of us in Paradise.