“’Hear ye another parable. There was a man an householder, who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen; and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the former; and they did to them in like manner. And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: ‘They will reverence my son.’”
The householder is God, who planted a vineyard that His people may imitate Him in love, for to love and be loved is to imitate God, with life being worth living because of the love within: “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12). He built, in a particular way, the nation of Israel: “Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the Gentiles and planted it” (Psalm 79:9), and guarded it with the law, as a fence within which His children could play, not being slaves to the law, but living beautiful lives within it: “But we know the law is good, if a man use it lawfully” (1 Timothy 1:8). He then gave a winepress of the teaching of the Prophets, from whom came the sweet wine of heavenly mysteries: “For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and thy children shall dwell in thee. And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee” (Isaias 62:5), with the tower being the temple: “And thou, O cloudy tower of the flock, of the daughter of Sion, unto thee shall it come: yea the first power shall come, the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem” (Micheas 4:8), which was described as a tower because it was where earth ascended to heaven and man encountered God: “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the sanctuary, that a cloud filled the house of the Lord” (3 Kings 8:10). The husbandmen were then the old covenant priest and Levites, who were not only called to their own goodness, but to present the Lord fruits of their work, that is, people who were deeply inspired by their teaching and sought the way of righteousness: “Many shall praise his wisdom, and it shall never be forgotten” (Ecclesiasticus 39:12). He then “leaves” the vineyard, that is, He doesn’t control His people, but lets them walk in freedom, for lovers do not dominate one another, but live their lives harmoniously. Souls, then, are like vines, which receives the love of God but has no fruit to show at first, before putting forth buds of truth, then finally versed in the art of love, put forth the ripe fruit of true love of neighbor: “In our gates are all fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee” (Canticle 7:13). When the Lord’s servants the Prophets came to retrieve the fruits of love between God and maiden Israel, they did not only refuse, but turned their indignation on those that came in the name of the Lord, beating Jeremiah, killed Isaiah, and stoned Naboth and Zachariah, as a few examples. But God, only wanting His people to know His merciful love, sent more than the first, before sending Love Itself to show them how to love, like a bird lifting out of the nest to show her little ones how to do the same: “As the eagle enticing her young to fly, and hovering over them, he spread his wings, and hath taken him and carried him on his shoulders” Deuteronomy 32:11). The Son is not sent as a judge to bear sentence: “For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him” (John 3:17), but as a Lover: “I sleep, and my heart watcheth: the voice of my beloved knocking: ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights’” (Canticle 5:2), that by seeing what love truly looks like, they may be enticed and do the same: “’What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord, that I may see.’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Receive thy sight, thy faith hath made thee whole.’ And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (Luke 18:41-43).