Day 17: Stewards, Not Owners
We are stewards of the vineyard, not owners.
Whenever we listen to a parable, many reasonable explanations come to our mind. Biblical scholars help us sort out all the different meanings and give us a plausible answer to Jesus’ intention “under the parable”. However, and this is the greatness of parables, any given one is always open to new interpretations.
So, let us exercise our imagination and wonder what this parable could mean today, for us, in the light of an increasing degradation of many of the Earth’s ecosystems:
Who is the landowner, the one who planted the vineyard? For a believer, the answer is obvious: God, the Creator, who made us stewards of His vineyard. And what about all those messengers trying to tell us, the tenants, something? Let me guess: they are the ones telling us who we are: stewards of the vineyard, not owners.
Every time we kill the messenger, the one telling us who we truly are, we are both destroying the gift of Creation and betraying us.
Reflection Questions:
- How do I understand myself? Am I an owner or a guest on this Earth?
- Who are, in the light of an increasingly wounded planet, the messengers? Can I hear their message of healing and reconciliation with Creation?
Jaime Tatay is a Jesuit priest and a forest engineer currently living in Madrid, Spain. He is working on a doctorate in social ethics and is involved in campus ministry (and he doesn’t hike as much as he’d like to).
Jaime Tatay is a Jesuit priest and a forest engineer currently living in Madrid, Spain. He is working on a doctorate in social ethics and is involved in campus ministry (and he doesn’t hike as much as he’d like to).
We are told the Pope is working on his encylclical that will desecibe how we must be good shepherds of our Earth. Indeed this is a vital teaching. I have written a letter to His Holiness and posted it on my own blog. Perhaps you might consider re-posting it amongst your Lenten advisiories. Here’s the link http://russgeorge.net/2015/01/20/papal-advice/