Homily Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Isaiah 5:1-7) “To Respect Life is to Love Everything Alive”
Homily Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Isaiah 5:1-7) “To Respect Life is to Love Everything Alive”
“Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth, who sustains us and governs us and who produces varied fruits and colored flowers and herbs”
The words come from St. Francis’ “Canticle of Creation.”
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Somehow it seems like the first reading from Isaiah is a most appropriate reading for today. Jesus’ parable in the Gospel of Matthew is also very apropos.
Our Church labels first Sunday of October as Respect-life Sunday. We become more aware every day that all of life is interconnected. The “Song of the Vineyard” that Isaiah proclaims would seem to be a metaphor for the story of creation. Jesus parable would also seem to be an allusion to the experience of the first parents.
We remember the story of Adam and Eve. The two of them were placed in the garden of Eden. God made them caretakers of the garden, but they allowed the corruption of sin to seep into the garden. Eventually, they were evicted from the Garden. The first parents failed in their vocation of protecting the garden that had been given to them.
Jesus gives his own version of the story. Human beings were given the care of a vineyard. The managers of the vineyard forgot who put them in charge in the first place. These evil servants exploited their positions. The vinedressers turned against the owner of the vineyard. And they did not fulfill his wishes. In the end, the owner (who represents God expels them from the vineyard).
As we look at our world today, we must wonder if the prophesy of Isaiah and the parable of Jesus is not being played out in real time. Humans have been given care of the whole world, but we are not doing very good job. Our world seems to be in a slow decline.
If we just look at one alarming trend it should tell us what is going on, the extinction of different species in the world. Extinction has always happened in our world as we all know, but normally there were 1-5 species a year that would become extinct. Now, the extinction rate is one thousand to ten thousand times that rate. Multiple extinctions happen every day. What are the long-term ramifications of this? Human lives are being extinguished.
St. Francis is called the first ecologist. Why is this so? Did he know all the science that we know? He did not. But he knew the spiritual importance of communing with nature. If we study his behavior, we see he spent much of his life living in hermitages, caves, huts on mountain sides. He knew intentionally chose to immerse himself in nature. For every day he spent preaching he tried to spend one day in nature. He tried not get caught up endless worry. He tried to give appropriate time to being outside in God’s creation.
Modern psychology would say that Francis was right about this choice. Spending time walking along a river, through the woods, just sitting in quiet on our back deck in the sun and wind is said to improve our mood, our self-esteem, it helps decrease stress and increase vitality.
On this pro-life Sunday we are reminded once again that all life is interconnected. Every creature’s life is important. From the smallest microorganism to the apex of creation, which we believe to be the human person, is sacred.
For this reason, it is most distressing that we hear people dismiss those who have died from the Coronavirus with statements like, “Well they were old anyway.” Or “They were sick and going to die as it was.” Such things disrespect the vineyard of the Lord. We often hear we are to respect human life from conception until its natural end. But we are asked to do more than that.
The message of our church echoes the teaching of St. Francis. All of creation is connected. We are a part of the web of life. When we disrespect any part of our environment, we disrespect God who created everything in the world. We are the caretakers of all life. Someday God’s Son will come to ask us about our stewardship. Let, us be ready to show him that we have loved all creation.
Reflection Questions:
- How do I try to conserve the earth’s resources? What more might I do?
- Do I see myself as connected to nature or do I feel alienated from the natural world? What might I do about it?
Dear Parishioners,
On October 10th and 11th, we will move all Masses back into the church for the winter. The outdoor Mass has been a pleasant experience for many people. I would like to thank all those who have made it a success. I would like to complement Suzie Budde and Cheryl Bolt who provided music. I appreciate the sound system that has been set up by Sam and Mike Maynard. Deacon Pat has been diligent about helping set up. Ushers have included Matt Martel and John DeCock.
As we move all Masses back into the church, we will have to redouble our efforts to follow protocols. People have been great about wearing masks and sanitizing their hands. We need to remember the importance of social distancing. We need to sign up for Masses before we come. This is easy. Go online to do this at our WEB site or call our office. We need to know numbers so we can keep households six feet apart. We need to have people sign-in so we can do contract tracing if necessary.
We also need to be pliable about where we sit. People must be assigned certain seats so we can protect everyone. Our ushers have volunteered their time please continue to cooperate with them.
May our Lady and the Angels and Saints protect us all.
Fr. Mark