Corpus Christi Blog

Peace Beyond Understanding

10-05-2014HomiliesFr. Chad King

Our 1st reading and Gospel remind us of a very important point that is good for us to understand.  Sometimes life doesn't go as planned.  Throughout life there are going to be good times and bad times, most likely many of you can testify to the difficulty in your life right now. Our 2nd reading though teaches how to have peace throughout the anxieties life brings us.

Our 1st reading from the Prophet Isaiah tells us about somebody who planted a vineyard.  He found fertile soil, he spaded it, cleared away the stones, and planted the seeds.  He protected the vineyard and prepared for the crop to grow.  In other words he did everything right to yield a good harvest.  But although he did everything right, what was yielded was wild grapes.  Sometimes we can do do everything right but that still does not mean that everything will end up the way we intended.  We know that sometimes life just doesn't go as planned, and as our 1st reading says, even with all the best efforts, sometimes wild grapes grow.
The prophet Isaiah at the end of that analogous story tells us that the vineyard in the story is the House of Israel, it is his people who despite even God's best efforts, his people didn't choose him.  And so what does God do to those who don’t choose him, he withdraws his felt presence, he doesn't til the soil, he withdraws the life giving rain.  He doesn't leave, he is still there, but he obeys the desires of the people and withdraws their being able to feel or see his presence in their life.  Of course, we know that Isaiah prophecies that God will not disappear forever, but that actually God will again and again come back to his people and invite them to draw close to him again, and in the end, if they repent and follow him, all will be good.

Jesus in our Gospel draws upon this story about a vineyard, but this time he changes it a little to make a different point and reveal another truth.  In Jesus' parable, after the landowner prepared the soil, planted the seeds, sent watchmen to protect the vineyard, and he hired tenants to take care of it.  And at harvest time he sent his servants to gather the fruit, but wanting everything themselves, the tenants mistreated the servants.  What I want to bring to your attention though is how gradually the sinfulness of the tenants grew.  The first they just beat, the other they killed, but the third in a more inhumane way, stoned to death.  It is true with us as well, isn't it, the more we sin and go further and further away from God, the more our hearts grow colder and colder, so much so that we don't even recognize God's activity in our lives. But the landowner, who we know is God, at the fullness of time, when he had had enough, he sent His Son.  But they rejected and killed even the Son.   But like Isaiah's story, that is not the end, but we know that God didn't leave, didn't give up on his people.  God raised his Son from the dead.  So that, as the Gospel says, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone- the most important piece for a foundation.  So God took a seemingly impossible and terrible situation- the killing of his Son and turned it into the greatest and most important outcomes.  So what God teaches us in the Resurrection of his Son is that God doesn't give up, God never abandons his people.  That means that we are never without hope, no matter what comes, no matter how life seems to be unfair and things don’t go our way, with God there is always a way, there is always hope.

The difficulty, we know though, is to live with that confidence.  How do we live always in that hope?  Our 2nd reading teaches us.  St. Paul writes to the people from Philipi, “have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests to God”.  Have no anxiety at all.  How in this world can we have no anxiety at all?  In this life, even when everything seems to be going well, we will still have some anxiety because we know that it won’t last.  And certainly when things in life are hard, we are anxious, wondering how or if we will ever hang on and make it through.  Picture if you will, a wheel with spokes, constantly moving around.  Life can be like that constantly moving wheel… when things are on the up-swing life is a lot easier, but we still have some anxiety because we know soon enough we will have reached the top and be on the way down again.  And on the way down, we are just hoping to hang on tight enough and long enough to make it through until the up-swing of life.  So how do we live with no anxiety- when life is this up and down cycle?

I submit that we not live on the outside, holding onto the edges, but put Jesus Christ in the center, and live there in the middle, in Jesus.  It is when we surrender the difficulties and anxieties of our lives to Christ, when each and every one of us humble and entrust ourselves to God, it is when we are not living on the edges, but are living in the center, only in Christ can we have no anxiety at all. When we have surrendered everything to God, as our 2nd reading says, “Then the peace of God which is beyond all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”.  Can you imagine having the kind of peace that is not just there on the up-swing of life, but a peace which is beyond all understanding, even when life is on the down-swing?  The true peace that God is wanting to give us is beyond understanding.  This kind of peace is not natural, it is not man-made, it is a peace not because of some worldly accomplishment, but it is given to those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ and are not living on the outside.  So my brothers and sisters, let us live in the center, let us live in Christ Jesus.  And there, as our 2nd reading ends, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, think about these things”- for these things find their origin in God.  May the God of peace be with you.

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