From The Bishop

On this Thanksgiving weekend we should all be grateful for the many blessings that we have received from Almighty God. One of those blessings is to be able to live in a diocese where we find so many vineyards. This helps us to have a greater appreciation of an image that is so often found in sacred scripture. In fact, we find it in the Readings for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time. Jesus offers a parable about tenants in a vineyard who refused to give the produce to the landowner. Each slave that was sent to collect what was owed was physically harmed. They even killed the landowner’s son. This parable is a direct reference to our salvation history, for Jesus was the Son who was rejected and killed. It also speaks of our own selfishness. The tenants should have been happy with what they had; however, they wanted more: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” This weekend we are called to focus on our many blessings with a grateful heart. In the Second Reading St. Paul reminds the Philippians to always turn to God in prayer with a spirit of thanksgiving. If we do this then we will seldom complain to God and will avoid the “sour grapes” of the First Reading. Let our attitude always be gratitude in the vineyard of the Lord.