A Beacon Of Light . . . “My House Will Be Called A House Of Prayer”

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Jr.

As we continue the journey with Jesus and the disciples during His public ministry, we must remind ourselves that the parables were used by Jesus as a way to clarify abstract or difficult concepts regarding the Kingdom of God. Of particular interest is that the parables were often Jesus’ way of revealing a lot about what was going on in the listeners’ heart. This was also how He spoke about troubling or difficult topics related to the Kingdom of God.
This week we will look at a parable that was hard for the people to hear. The Parable of the Tenants, which appears in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, is the kind of parable that was not welcomed by the people of Jesus’ time. If we put the parable within the context of Jesus’ public ministry we find that Jesus addressed the parable within the Temple area. Jesus had just entered the Temple and found it was filled with everything contrary to His Father’s house because it was filled with moneychangers and those selling things.
Jesus expresses His displeasure with what was going on in the Temple area when He says: “My house will be called a house of prayer…but you are making it a den of robbers” (Matt. 21:13) Jesus’ actions infuriated the chief priests and teachers of the law because they felt Jesus was disrespecting their traditions and laws. Even more disturbing was the fact that the children in the temple area were praising Jesus and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” So, having just driven them all out of the Temple area Jesus now had the opportunity to teach them once again about the importance of the Kingdom of God.
So, Jesus addresses the people with the following parable: “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
“But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So, they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time” (Matt. 21:33-41).
Looking at the parable, it was considered commonplace for a wealthy person to buy up several farms or vineyards and leave them in the care of tenants. When harvest came, the owner would send someone to collect their part of the proceeds.
In this parable, the landowner is God, the vineyard represents God’s people, and the tenants are the religious leadership. So, we could say that in the “vineyard of this world,” God is the landowner of the vineyard of life; this we call the Holy Catholic Church. We His sons and daughters are the vineyard, for we live and move within the Church. Finally, the religious authorities, or the church’s hierarchy, bishops and priests are the tenants who have the responsibility of maintaining the vineyard.
Breaking down the parable we can see there exists in our time, a similar situation to which this parable has merit. The struggle that exists in this parable exists today. God has given us the Church, the visible place through which we receive what is necessary to achieve eternal life. The Church is “the land” through which we the “vineyard of the faithful” look to gain what we need to live our journey of life. The ordained ministers of bishops and priests are the tenants to whom the Lord has entrusted the care of the “vineyard of the faithful.” So, with each of these now explained, how does this parable represent today?
First, we need to remember that parables are used to explain difficult truths of our time. In the parable Jesus tells us about a struggle that exists between the authority of God, or Church, and the tenants, or the ordained. When the landowner, God, sends His representative, who is Jesus, to collect “the fruit of the harvest,” the tenants resent it and show their dismay by seizing, beating, and even killing the “vineyard of the faithful “. Allow me to explain this for a moment. In its simplest form, the parable shows how God has sent many into the world as beacons of light to illuminate the way to the Father. Sadly, however, many, including those who are entrusted with the supreme responsibility of caring for and protecting the “vineyard of the faithful,” have failed.
The tenants of today have done precisely what the tenants of the parable did. They have seized, beaten, and even killed the faith that exists in the “vineyard of the faithful.” We can show this by using several examples.
The first example of how the faith was “seized” from us happened during the pandemic. In times of great worldly anxiety, the Church has always provided for the needs of the faithful. This has always involved the celebration of the Sacraments as the “spiritual tools” necessary in times past. During the pandemic, however, the government “seized” our faith and those responsible with ensuring for our spiritual health, gave up on us. The very “tenants of today” acted as the tenant in the parable.
The second example we should consider, involves the patrimony of liturgical tradition we have as Catholics. In the parable, the tenants, were accused of beating the owner’s representative. This has happened as the “tenants” who hold authority in the Church constantly beat up the liturgical traditions of the Church. We have seen this in how Pope Francis has attacked the Traditional Latin Mass as a vehicle through which division happens in the Church, when in actuality, it is because of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, that many have returned to the faith, especially our young people who crave a liturgical experience full of reverence and sacredness.
This does not contribute to the “flourishing of a harvest of fruit,” but sadly has the opposite effect by beating down the “vineyard of the faithful.”

A True Renewal Of Faith

Finally, the parable ends with the “heir” of the landowner being killed by the tenants. For us as Catholics, the same scenario has happened within the Church, and will continue to happen. If actions of the seizing of the faith during the pandemic and the rejecting of our liturgical traditions are not evidence enough for us to see the path of destruction that lies ahead, then we too have become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. When our bishops cannot agree on the importance and sanctity of the Eucharist, as to allow so-called “catholic” politicians to receive the Eucharistic Lord in a sacrilegious way, the answer is clear, the tenants are readying themselves to strip from us all we hold dear.
The tenants in the parable had no regard for their responsibility in protecting the vineyard. In the same way, the tenants of today have shown their deep lack of faith in safeguarding all that we hold dear. It is time for the “old order” of the past fifty years to pass away, so that we can usher in a true renewal of faith, a renewal that returns to the roots of what really matters. The “vineyard of the faithful” is pleading with the “tenants of today” to fulfill their responsibilities as successors of the apostles. We do not need CEOs as tenants, we need shepherds again dedicated to the service of us all.