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Finish this line: With great power, comes _________ … That’s right, with great power, comes great responsibility. Does anyone know what this line is from? … Yes, this line was popularized in the Spiderman comic book and movie franchise where Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker, “remember, with great power comes great responsibility.
In today’s Gospel reading, we heard about tenants who were given the great power of running the vineyard. But instead of focusing on the great responsibility that comes with this great power, these wicked tenants seek to reap all the rewards they can from this great power for their own selfish purposes.
This Gospel reading is an extension of last Sunday’s Gospel reading where one son said told the father he would not go out to work in the vineyard but did end up going to work in the vineyard after all and the second son told the father he would go out to work in the vineyard but he ended up not going out to work in the vineyard after all.
Last week’s Gospel reading shows us that God cares what we do when it comes to going to work in the vineyard. Today’s Gospel reading shows us that God also cares about who we are working for in the vineyard. There are those of us who all too often go out and work in the vineyard for our own selfish purposes, trying to retain and gain as much power as possible for ourselves. Then, there are those of us who are working in the vineyard for God and his purposes. If we’re honest with ourselves and God, there are some moments of our lives when we are working for ourselves and our own selfish purposes and there are other moments in our lives where we are working for God and his purposes. In each moment of our lives, we get to answer God’s question of us, “who are you working for?” Who we work for either conceals or reveals that it is God who has given us the power to do the work.
For those of us who may feel discouraged by the times when we have been working for ourselves, we should find great consolation by the future tense of the following line Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel and what it reveals about the heart of God for us. After they beat and killed the owner’s servants, God sends his son to the tenants and Jesus tells us what God is thinking when he sends his son. God is thinking, “They will respect my son.” I am struck by the future tense of God’s thinking. Even though God knows about those times in our past when we’ve mistreated, rejected, and lived our lives in a way that communicates Jesus is dead to us, God still sends us his Son today. The son of the owner of all that we have been given, the one who was crucified and died for the times when we’ve misused and abused the power we’ve been given has conquered the power of death and is here today with us. When this all-knowing God sends us his son in the Eucharist today, God looks at each of us tenants and thinks “they will respect my son.”
God has given us the great gift of the vineyard of our lives for us to take care of. This gift is a vineyard because it is meant to be fruitful. It is meant to be fruitful not just for us and our selfish desires. It is meant to be fruitful and produce something that can be returned to God. When God sends his Son and others into the vineyard of our lives, instead of casting them out of our lives completely, rejecting them, and living as if they are dead to us, we are meant to welcome them and embrace them. God does not give us a gift just so we can do whatever we want with it. We are not meant to use everything and everyone in our lives for our own purposes and selfish desires. When God gives us a gift, he has an intended purpose for that gift.
In thinking of my own life, when I was ordained, God and Bishop Thomas gave me the gift of great power of being able to preach. What do those of us with the power to preach do with this power? Pope Francis said that in the Catholic Church, “in general, the homilies are a disaster.” First off, it’s nice that Pope Francis took the time out of his busy schedule to listen to my homilies …, but he could have been a little nicer with his critique of my homilies; calling them a disaster, wow. So, Pope Francis’ prescription for this problem, which Fr. Jeremy reminded me of about a month ago in his homily is this: homilies should be “no more than eight to 10 minutes” Pope Francis said. When Fr. Jeremy mentioned this about a month ago, after Mass, I said to my wife, Julie, “yeah, but Jesus’ sermon on the mount was the best preaching ever and that was way longer than 10 minutes.” Julie responded to me saying, “yeah, but you’re not Jesus.” Pope Francis and my wife sure do have a way of humbling me. For those of us who have been given the power to preach, we should not reap the rewards by taking the approach of “I have the microphone so you will listen to every word I have to say for as long as I choose to preach.” Instead, when preaching, I should remember the great responsibility I have to say the words God wants me to say and get out of the way.
So, whether it be the great power we have been given to preach, to vote, the great power that comes from the knowledge we’ve been given in school, the great power we have with our work, our money, our home, our marriage, our children, our relationships, and all that we’ve been given, God wants us to use it all for his purposes. God who is the owner of all we have is sending his son into the vineyard of our lives today in the Eucharist. Instead of casting him off completely, God looks at each of tenants and thinks “they will respect my son.”
May we welcome him into the vineyard of our lives, embracing him, giving him all that we have as our way of returning to God all that he has given us.
When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we have the great power of the Son of the living God within us. With the Son of the Living God in us, may we chose in more moments of our lives to be doing the work for God and his purposes. As Jesus dwells in us, it is by how we live our lives that we truly finish this line: with great power, comes great responsibility.