When I think of a vineyard, I think of visiting a winery and tasting their selections or of enjoying a nice glass of wine with friends over a leisurely dinner.  It’s a luxury that many of us enjoy.  For the people in ancient Israel, however, wine was not a luxury but a necessity and vineyards were as important as wheat fields or sheep folds.  Since their water was often impure, they had learned that adding a little wine to the drinking water made it safer to drink.  They didn’t know […]

We are all familiar with the saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Jesus teaches this very lesson in our Gospel today. The religious leaders of the Jewish community in his day spoke many pious words and gave the impression of great holiness. They were considered the greatest servants of God in their communities. Once Jesus began to challenge them, however, they were revealed as righteous in their speech but not in their treatment of others.

Jesus demonstrates this contradiction in his parable of the two sons. The son who speaks […]

At first glance, the message of today’s Gospel parable seems so blatantly unfair.  The workers who put in a whole day’s work and sweat receive the same wage as those who were there for only one hour?  It may make us ask, “Jesus, what’s going on here?”

And then we remember that envy and discontentment say everything about us, and nothing about what God is doing here.  So what is the lesson of this parable?  First, it’s helpful to pay attention to Jesus’ use of the phrase, “usual daily wage.”  This […]

We’ve all heard the dictum: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”  It’s straight from the Bible.  In fact, you’ll find it in three books of the Old Testament:  Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.   This instruction follows shortly after the Ten Commandments and is offered as a practical application of the 5^th Commandment: Thou shalt not kill.  After decreeing that “whoever strikes someone a mortal blow must be put to death,” the text goes on to decree the appropriate punishment for lesser injury.  It ends with, “if injury […]