In the parable of the tenants, Jesus warns the Jews that “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (Mathew 21:43). God has granted us the grace of faith, he has showered us with His graces, and we must produce fruits. God Himself planted a vineyard in our soul when He created each and every one of us (Mathew 21:33). Then He leased the vineyard of our souls back to us by giving us freedom to love Him back or not.
While that vineyard was leased, He sent us people that taught us our Catholic faith during our lives, and most likely during our teenage years we “killed” them by rejecting their experience and wisdom. We let the aberrant culture take a hold of that vineyard and produce the wrong fruits by forgetting our Lord in our daily activities. Maybe even worse, rejecting our Catholic faith all together. God’s mercy is so abundant that He has continuously sent His servants to give us opportunities to change, to serve Him more, to love Him more deeply. But our response is to say NO, to say NO to the priest that is asking us to serve at mass, to say NO to a friend that is asking us to live a retreat, to say NO to our spouses when they ask us to pray with them, to say NO to the beggars that is asking us for alms.
When we say NO to those servants of the owner of our soul, we are “killing” them just like the tenants killed the many servants sent by God in the parable. If we do not hear our Lord’s servants and change, if we do not start loving our God more deeply and start producing fruits, we will also “kill” Jesus when He tries to come to our vineyard. We will have a pattern of rejection that will “kill” the Owner’s Son in our souls. We will try to seize our “inheritance” abusing our freedom and not giving God the love, attention and respect that He deserves (Mathew 21:38-39).
Then, just like the Jews of the times of Jesus, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit”.
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