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(Is.5:1-7;\xa0\xa0 Ps.80:9,12-16,19-20,Is.5:7;\xa0\xa0 Phil.4:6-9;\xa0\xa0 Mt.21:33-43) \xa0 \u201cThe kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.\u201d \xa0 \u201cLet me now sing of my friend, my friend\u2019s song concerning his vineyard.\xa0 My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside; he spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted the choicest vines; within it he built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press.\xa0 Then he looked for the crop of grapes, but what it yielded was wild grapes.\u201d\xa0 Of course, this \u201cvineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are His cherished plant; He looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! for justice, but hark, the outcry!\u201d\xa0 And so the Lord promises to \u201ctake away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled!\xa0 Yes, [He] will make it a ruin.\u201d Jesus\u2019 parable in our gospel today echoes precisely Isaiah\u2019s \u201csong\u201d: \u201cThere was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.\u201d\xa0 But now the prophecy is brought to fulfillment; now the rotten grapes come to maturity, and so the ruin of the vineyard will be complete.\xa0 For in their rejection of the Son the hope of Israel is lost: none further has the Father to send them; herein they utterly spurn His love.\xa0 How shall they be turned to producing good fruit if He who is the source of all goodness they destroy in their souls?\xa0 There is nothing left but to remove the vineyard from them. \u201cA vine from Egypt [the Lord] transplanted; [He] drove away the nations and planted it.\u201d\xa0 But for its unfaithfulness He has \u201cbroken down its walls.\u201d\xa0 Indeed, in a scant few years after the crucifixion of the Messiah the temple in Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed \u2013 the worship upon which the faith of the Lord\u2019s people is founded will be no more.\xa0 And it shall not return.\xa0 But even as this temple built by hands the Lord lays waste, He yet answers our psalmist\u2019s plea to Him: \u201cLook down from heaven, and see; take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted.\u201d\xa0 For as He destroys, so He builds; as Christ is killed, so His Church is planted.\xa0 And it shall grow unto eternity. The fulfillment of all prophecy, the New Jerusalem, is in our midst now.\xa0 In the Catholic faith the worship at Jerusalem comes to maturity.\xa0 And though many would see it removed \u2013 and perhaps by man\u2019s reason one might say for its sins it should be \u2013 though many come in their presumption to build anew\u2026 there is no call from the Lord for any of this, and these man-made structures will also fall to ruin.\xa0 What God builds now He builds on a foundation which lasts forever, against which even the gates of hell shall not prevail.\xa0 Only on the day of judgment, only when the kingdom has come, will this House be needed no more \u2013 for then all that will be will be His Church. So, \u201cbrothers and sisters, have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, make your requests known to God.\u201d\xa0 Truly does the Lord\u2019s \u201cface shine upon us\u201d in this holy Temple, and it shall not be moved.\xa0 See that you not remove yourselves from it but \u201ckeep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen\u201d in its confines.\xa0 Listen to His Word spoken to your hearts, and receive well the broken Bread of this holy sacrifice and the Blood of this heavenly vine.\xa0 And bear fruit in His name. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Fatherless Children" from Cleansing Human Frailty, fourth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, restore this vine that we might bear your fruit in peace.\xa0 YHWH, the vineyard you planted in Israel had to be broken down, the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, but the Church you have built in the blood of Christ shall endure till the end of time.\xa0 Let us make our home in its confines. The peace of the New Jerusalem is ours, O LORD, by the grace wrought by your Son; the New Covenant let us embrace that we might flourish as your vine.\xa0 O let us bear fruit in your sight! Break not down the walls of this House, LORD; let us not be disobedient to your call.\xa0 Though we have killed Jesus on a cross, let us now turn back to you.\xa0 For you will have mercy on your people and restore us in your love.\xa0 Give us new life and we will call upon your Name, never forgetting your presence in our midst. O LORD, may your House be built this day even unto the heavens; in your presence let us make our home, serving you faithfully at all times.\xa0 The Body and Blood of your only Son as our food and drink, let us be grafted to your vine.