Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the tenants. This is one of the most terrible anticipations of the cross. In a final attempt to make his vineyard fruitful, God sent his only begotten Son, but even he was rejected.

How are we tending the vineyard? We have received so much from God, but are we making the world fruitful? Are we responding to the Lord’s invitation with the works of justice, love, peace, chastity, respect for others? Or are we more or less killing the messengers?

There are many ways to look at contemporary secularism and relativism. A secularist world is one that has grown intentionally deaf to the voice of the Spirit. St. John Paul II called it “the culture of death.” God, as is his wont, allows us to feel the effects of our sin.

Okay, but we are never meant to read the Gospel and end up depressed. The Gospel is always Good News. God has not given up on us! He turns the sign of defeat into the sign of victory. The very one whom we reject is the one whom he gives back to us as a source of life.