GOOD TENANTS IN THE VINEYARD


ST. CHARLES LWANGA AND COMPANIONS

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

2 Pet 1:2-7; Ps 91:14-16; Mk 11:1-12

Working to grow in the Life of God

The apostle Peter reminds us of the intention of God to share his divine nature with us in the first reading. Our participation or sharing in the life of God would be through faith, knowledge, and love. Every one of these gifts increases with operation. Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift that enables us to possess a spiritual life. It means that without faith in Jesus Christ, there is no spiritual birth. We have the life of God in us through the Holy Spirit making his home in us following the purification of our conscience by the precious blood of Jesus. Thus, the spiritual life is possible by God and never within human power. “By his divine power, he has given us all the things that we need for life and for true devotion, bringing us to know God himself, who has called us by his own glory and goodness.”  Thus, God gave us the gift of faith, a new life in his Spirit, and love that the Holy Spirit kindles in us. These are precious gifts from God, enabling us to live above the worldly standard and beyond its corruptive influence. This new life and the principles of its operations are given to us to own and operate. It belongs to us to use these principles to grow and develop spiritually.

At the beginning of the spiritual life, we are like children placed under a guardian. Next, we grow to become hired men working for a landowner. During our infancy, virtues are planted in us through the word of God and supervised by the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. During the second period, when we commence working as hired men in God’s vineyard, the virtues are tended with care until they mature and are ready for fruition. These periods and the work they entail are delicate for the harvest of eternal life to be possible. The parable of our Lord in the gospel explained these periods. “A man planted a vineyard; fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.” We must watch over the spiritual or heavenly life God has planted in us with care, tending the various spiritual gifts he has given us so that all their fruits would be remitted back to God in praise of his glory.

God gave us the vineyard on trust; to be rewarded with what is truly ours, we must give it all we have. We do not see the glory manifest in us now; Rather, we are plagued by trials, sufferings, and even death. But the seed of glory is within us if we believe in Jesus Christ. We must exercise our faith for it to yield plenty of fruits. “But to attain this, you will have to do your utmost yourselves, adding goodness to the faith that you have, understanding to your goodness, self-control to your understanding, patience to your self-control, true devotion to your patience, kindness towards your fellow men to your devotion, and, to this kindness, love.” If these virtues are not cultivated to maturity in us, we would most likely betray and kill the Son of Man as those tenants in the parable of Jesus, whose end would be hellfire. We have examples of those who worked very hard in the vineyard of the Lord. St. Charles Lwanga and his companion saints, who tended the vineyard the Lord entrusted to them with care and remitted the produce to the Lord of the vineyard when he sent his emissaries. These saints were Ugandan Christians who were killed by King Mwanga around 1885 to 1889. Some of them were servants and personal attendants in his palace; they refused to accept the life of debauchery and sodomy the king was living. Many were burnt alive after being tortured. The Christian life in us grows and develops through these struggles and trials of life. We must pray for more grace to grow in the knowledge of God more and more.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, that through the prayers of Saints Charles Lwanga and his companions, we may grow each day in our spiritual life and in our understanding of the Church and in the knowledge of the mysteries of Jesus Christ your Son, that we may bear plenty fruits to the glory of your Name.


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