These people are us

27 ^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
 
The song of my friend in Isaiah today becomes the song of my friend who lives in Houston. He built a vineyard. He dedicated his life to his cherished success and business. Then he went to harvest his crop of grapes but he yielded a crop of wild grapes instead. What more could he do to make his vineyard great? A Hurricane came and blew the whole lot away. In his rage my friend went out and mowed his vineyard down. The scriptures today, Isaiah and the Gospel tell the stories of people who dedicated their lives to building up their successful businesses. These are allegorical tales. The people and places are symbolic representations of the people of Judah and Jerusalem in ancient times. These people are also us.  I put all my eggs in one basket. This is my investment and it is a sure thing. I spend a fortune building my house, building my business. I spend my fortune on having lovely things. I invest in my children’s future. Life is wonderful. Then it all comes crashing down in a great wind. Now I live in a shelter. There is nothing left. What am I to do?  It is terrible to say but there are plenty of people living in Texas right now and this is their story. It kind of makes us all shudder because there but for the grace of God go I. I feel sorry for those people. I can help a little but I don’t really know how to help them. We spend our days building our empires and castles. Then wind and rain come and it is all blown away. Surely these life changing events make us think about the things that matter. Thank God everyone got out alive. Thank God for the kindness of others. Thank God I discovered the spirit of America again. Our nation was built on ordinary folk helping out their neighbor. It took a terrible catastrophe to remind us of that. Maybe next time I won’t be so isolated from my neighbor. Surely Paul’s words today will bring peace to someone. “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything by prayer, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” I wish that prayer for all those people who have lost everything and have to rebuild again. Maybe now their houses will be built on rock instead of sand. Maybe now their Christianity will come forth. Let them realize that we are all in this together. We rise up together. We fall down together, and we rise up together again. In the midst of our catastrophe, “Alleluia, anyway!”
With love, Fr. Pat