Our Lenten Journey with the Angels and the Saints – 1 March – Friday of the Second Week in Lent and the Feast of the Holy Shroud – – Genesis 37:6-22; Matthew 21:33-46.– Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“He has not dealt with us
according to our sins,
nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities.”
Psalm 102:10
“They seized Him,
threw Him out of the vineyard
and killed Him.”
Matthew 21:39
The Mystery of God’s Vineyard
Faith, Love, Obedience, Penance …
St Bernard O.Cist. (1090-1153)
Father and Doctor of the Church
“Brethren, if we understand the Lord’s Vineyard to be the Church … it seems to me that we here encounter a significant prerogative.
Note,, in a special way, how the Church extended her boundaries all over the world …
By this I understand that company of believers, who were described as “of one heart and soul.” (Acts 4:32) …
For during the persecution it had not been so uprooted that it could not be elsewhere replanted and leased “to other tenants, who will deliver the produce … when the season arrives.”
No indeed, it did not perish, it changed in a new location; it even increased and spread further afield under the blessing of the Lord.
So, brethren, lift up your eyes round about and see if “the mountains were not covered with its shade, the cedars of God with its branches; if its tendrils did not extend to the sea and its offshoots all the way to the river” (Ps 79:11-12).
No wonder this, for it is God’s building, God’s farm (1 Cor 3:9).
He waters it, he propagates it, prunes and cleanses it that it may bear even more fruit.
When did He ever deprive, of His care and labour that which His right Hand planted? (Ps 79:15).
There can be no question of neglect, where the Apostles are the branches, the Lord is the Vine and His Father is the Vinedresser (Jn 15:1-5).
Planted in faith, its roots are grounded in love, dug in with the hoe of discipline, fertilised with penitential tears, watered with the words of preachers and so, it abounds with the wine which inspires joy, rather than debauchery, wine full of the pleasure which is never licentious. This is the wine which gladdens the heart (Ps 103:15) …
Be consoled, daughter of Sion!
Yours is to wonder at the Mystery, rather than bewail the harm — let your heart be expanded to gather together, the fullness of the pagans!” — (Extract from Sermon 30 on the Song of Songs)
AnaStpaul 