Fr. Michael Williams

The idea that the People of God are like a vineyard, planted to produce good things for the Lord, can be found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

We sang in the psalm that “the vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel”. And because the Church, planted by Christ, is the New Israel, we can justifiably say, “the vineyard of the Lord is the Church”. Obviously being the vineyard of the Lord means that the Church, and we as members of it, are called to produce good fruit for the Lord.

The kind of good fruit that the Lord wants us to produce is the life of virtue. “A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good” (CCC1803). To live the life of virtue is to follow St Paul’s advice in the second reading, “fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise”.

To be able to follow that advice from St Paul will mean that we have to make an effort to live this way. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “the moral virtues are acquired by human effort” (CCC1804). Good habits need to be cultivated. We need to make the effort to be true, noble, good, pure, honourable. In the spiritual life we need to endeavour every day to produce good fruit that is acceptable to the Lord. Living the true Christian life requires effort. Going to Mass or helping someone in need requires effort.

But as we heard in the reading from Isaiah, the vineyard of the Lord, and we as members of it, can also produce weeds or sour grapes. At the root cause of these weeds or sour grapes is sin. Sin is planted by the Evil One and it can produce a nasty harvest if we let it take root. “Sin engenders vice by repetition of the same acts” (CCC1865). So just as virtue is following good habits and producing good things, so vice is to habitually sin. To habitually sin also requires effort, just as virtue requires effort. To steal someone else’s property requires effort; to excessively eat or drink requires effort. When effort is put into sinning it is called vice, or a bad habit. To God, sinning and vice are like sour grapes. Thankfully Christ has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession to get rid of the weeds.

Of course we not only need effort to live a life pleasing to the Lord, we need to be united to the Lord so that His grace flows into us and produces good things. In John’s gospel Jesus tells us, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing”.

So let us pray that united to the Lord we will through our efforts produce good things for Him. And let us be confident that He will give us all that is necessary to produce the good fruit for His vineyard. Amen.