Pope:
Family is integral part of God's plan for humanity
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis urged the Synod
Bishops to listen to the Lord’s call to “care for the family” which is “an
integral part of His loving plan for humanity”. The Holy Father said that
“Synod Assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas” but to
“better nurture and tend to the Lord’s vineyard.”
He spoke this morning during the Opening Mass of
the Synod of Bishops in St. Peter’s Basilica. The two week General Assembly
will discuss the “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of the
Evangelization”.
Here is the translation of the Holy Father’s
homily:
Today the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel employ the image of the Lord’s
vineyard. The Lord’s vineyard is his “dream”, the plan which he nurtures
with all his love, like a farmer who cares for his vineyard. Vines are
plants which need much care!
God’s “dream” is his people. He planted it and nurtured it with patient
and faithful love, so that it can become a holy people, a people which brings
forth abundant fruits of justice.
But in both the ancient prophecy and in Jesus’ parable, God’s dream is
thwarted. Isaiah says that the vine which he so loved and nurtured has
yielded “wild grapes” (5:2,4); God “expected justice but saw bloodshed, righteousness,
but only a cry of distress” (v. 7). In the Gospel, it is the farmers
themselves who ruin the Lord’s plan: they fail to do their job but think only
of their own interests.
In Jesus’ parable, he is addressing the chief priests and the elders of the
people, in other words the “experts”, the managers. To them in a
particular way God entrusted his “dream”, his people, for them to nurture, tend
and protect from the animals of the field. This is the job of leaders: to
nuture the vineyard with freedom, creativity and hard work.
But Jesus tells us that those farmers took over the vineyard. Out of
greed and pride they want to do with it as they will, and so they prevent God
from realizing his dream for the people he has chosen.
The temptation to greed is ever present. We encounter it also in the
great prophecy of Ezekiel on the shepherds (cf. ch. 34), which Saint Augustine
commented upon in one his celebrated sermons which we have just reread in the
Liturgy of the Hours. Greed for money and power. And to satisfy
this greed, evil pastors lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others,
which they themselves do not lift a finger to move (cf. Mt 23:4)
We too, in the Synod of Bishops, are called to work for the Lord’s
vineyard. Synod Assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever
ideas, or to see who is more intelligent… They are meant to better nuture
and tend the Lord’s vineyard, to help realize his dream, his loving plan for his
people. In this case the Lord is asking us to care for the family, which
has been from the beginning an integral part of his loving plan for humanity.
We are all sinners and can also be tempted to “take over” the vineyard, because
of that greed which is always present in us human beings. God’s dream
always clashes with the hypocrisy of some of his servants. We can
“thwart” God’s dream if we fail to let ourselves be guided by the Holy
Spirit. The Spirit gives us that wisdom which surpasses knowledge, and
enables us to work generously with authentic freedom and humble creativity.
My Synod brothers, to do a good job of nurturing and tending the vineyard, our
hearts and our minds must be kept in Jesus Christ by “the peace of God which
passes all understanding” (Phil 4:7). In this way our
thoughts and plans will correspond to God’s dream: to form a holy people who
are his own and produce the fruits of the kingdom of God (cf. Mt 21:43).
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