8 October 2023 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watch-tower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

From Isaiah 5: 1-7, NRSV

The image of a vineyard would have been very familiar to the people of Israel. The prophet Isaiah would have gained immediate interest in singing this song which begins positively with the prophet listing some of the many hard tasks needed to create a successful vineyard. It is likely that many of those listening would be involved in such work themselves. Having gained their interest, he draws them in further to his story by asking them to judge what else the owner of the vineyard (who had worked so hard and invested so much love in his vineyard) could have done to gain a good harvest rather than the wild or sour grapes that he actually got. Towards the end of the song, Isaiah reveals that the vineyard is a symbol for the people of Israel and that God is the owner of the vineyard. The people listening to the song are actually being invited to reflect on their own sins and failure to fulfil what God has invested in them. The prophet threatens a radical way of dealing with the problem by laying waste to the vineyard. It may seem hard to imagine that God would want to deal  with his Chosen People in the same way. However, as all good gardeners know, it is sometimes necessary to be radical when a crop repeatedly fails in a particular spot. Perhaps the prophet is pointing not to a final destruction of the people but to a time of pruning and replanting from which they can emerge more fruitfully.

• • How would those listening to the prophet’s song have felt when they realised it was actually a judgement of themselves?
  • Are there any aspects of your life that need “pruning” so that you can be more fruitful?

Take some time to reflect on all the ways in which God has invested in you and the fruits that have resulted from this.