Traditional Catholic Teaching - SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

Go you also into my vineyard.
St. Matthew 20: 4.

God's chosen people had been compared even by the prophets to a vineyard, which God had treated most carefully, and which still did not prosper, because the Jews did not co-operate with His grace. Through the prophet Isaias God complained of this, saying: "What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? Was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes?"

(Is. 5: 4). Our Lord followed the same line of thought in two of His most impressive parables, where He compares the Jews with a vineyard to which the owner sent many servants and finally his own son, but all were killed by the wicked, disloyal workmen.

The vineyard was, therefore, the Jewish nation, and, in a wider sense, all mankind, who ought, in accordance with God's will, to attain to everlasting salvation and eternal life. Because the vineyard represents the whole of the human race, we may say that it represents also each individual soul, since the race is made up of individuals. If each one diligently cultivated his own vineyard, i. e., his own soul, the whole human race would be sanctified and saved. In to-day's gospel our Lord says that the householder sent labourers into his vineyard, but He does not only mean that we ought to be diligent in saving the souls of others in His Church, but that we ought to be zealous, primarily, for our own salvation. Nothing is more common than for people always to be criticizing the words and actions of others, and judging their disposition from what they do and say, inferring that in one way or another they are not zealous enough in working out their salvation; nothing is more common than for people continually to be anxious about the souls of others and to neglect their own. This so-called anxiety for the salvation of others is often nothing but a sinful love of criticism that delights in discovering the faults of others; it is a kind of spiritual pride, making us think ourselves better than other people and exalting ourselves above them. Beware always of forming unnecessary opinions regarding others under the pretext of lamenting over the neglected vineyard of their souls. Thousands of sins are committed and thousands of unkind remarks are made under the specious pretext of being anxious for the salvation of others.

If you want to find out whether you really care for the souls of others in the way that Jesus desires, ask yourselves whether you really take pains every day to improve yourselves, to learn what is right and to do it, to uproot evil by strict self-denial, etc. As long as you are not careful about these things, there is reason to fear that your criticisms of others, which you fancy are the result of your anxiety for their salvation, are really sinful, and in the end it is quite possible that many a vineyard, whose neglected condition you have often deplored, may prove to be more beautiful than the vineyard of your own soul. When Martha complained of Mary, our Lord said: "But one thing is necessary, and Mary bath chosen the best part" (Luke 10: 42). What part had Mary chosen? Was she like Martha, full of energy and activity in her housekeeping, but nevertheless able to find time to criticize her sister, and wonder why she did nothing to help, maintaining that this was not right and that our Lord ought to rebuke her? Martha, pious as she was, tended to err by reason of her excessive care that others should do their duty. But what of Mary? Did she think perhaps that Martha cared little for her salvation and was too much interested in worldly affairs? No, she sat at our Lord's feet and drank in His words; she was anxious about her own salvation, and it was for this that Jesus praised her; for He knew that only those who are careful for their own salvation, who truly attend to His teaching and struggle after virtue in their own hearts, will ever be able to promote the salvation of others. He seems to have rebuked Martha for judging too hastily, and to have meant: "You are troubled because your sister is not quite doing her duty and acting in accordance with my teaching, which would have her work as well as pray; but do not be disturbed. By listening attentively now she is promoting the welfare of her own soul, and making herself fit to do a great deal in future for the souls of others." It is of course our duty as Christians to help others on the way to salvation, as far as we can, and especially it may be important for you to be able to counsel and guide others. If you wish to be capable of doing this, it behooves you in your youth to sit attentively at our Lord's feet, learning and doing what is expedient for your own salvation. The more careful you are now about it; the more zealously you learn to control your evil inclinations, to cure your faults, to practise virtue, and to prefer God and His holy word to all worldly pleasures, the better will you be able eventually to show others the way to be saved.

Care for our salvation is necessary if we are to practise properly charity towards our neighbour, and we cannot truly love God unless we take care to be saved. Why should we be ungrateful to Him' Does God suffer any loss if we do not attain to salvation? Is he less happy if our souls are lost? No one is so foolish as to think this; but when a man does not work out his salvation, he frustrates God's loving purpose of making him happy forever, and so he defeats the object which he had as one of God's creatures, and which is that of all those who serve Him.

He who is not zealous for the salvation of his own soul, is ungrateful for all the mercies of God's grace bestowed upon the human race from the time of Adam to that of Christ. If you read the Old Testament, and all the wonderful miracles and prophecies; if you considered in how marvellous and loving a manner God prepared the Jewish nation for the coming of the Redeemer, your hearts would always be moved by the thought: "God did all this for my sake; for thousands of years He was caring for my soul, in order that I might reach heaven. Yes, God has done so much for me, and shall I be unwilling to do anything for myself?"

But if we read the New Testament, how can we possibly see what Jesus taught, and consider His miracles, without feeling how deep would be our ingratitude, if we allowed all these results of His infinite love for us to be wasted? Let us often think of Him, and the gentleness, goodness and wisdom with which He has taught us, and let us promise to be obedient to His will in every detail. If ever our own comfort, our frivolity or any other temptation tends to lead us astray, and make us careless about our salvation, let us look at the Crucifix and renew our resolution to bear the Cross of self-conquest for love of Him who laid down His life for us.

Finally, if we look back at our own lives, we shall see plainly how lovingly God has cared for the welfare of our souls. He gave us strength to rise higher, reason and free will; but, besides all this, in His infinite mercy He has given us opportunities of learning what is right, and of perceiving better than many others what is conducive to our souls' good; He has lavished upon us graces making for our salvation. How often has He strengthened us in hours of temptation! How often has He preserved us from evil, and forgiven us our sins; yes, He has even nourished us with His own Body and Blood, in order that we may be His children, and be saved. It would indeed be the most horrible ingratitude to cast all these graces aside recklessly, caring nothing for our salvation, for the securing of which He in His incomprehensible love has supplied us with so many natural and supernatural means.

True love of God and our neighbour shows us how necessary it is to care for the welfare of our souls. Genuine self-love imposes this duty upon us all, for nothing but care for our own salvation, and zealous work in the vineyard of our own souls can make us worthy to receive at night the payment promised to all faithful and dutiful labourers.

Let us resolve to-day and often renew our resolution — If hither-to through carelessness and want of thought we have been negligent in attending to the welfare of our souls, we will do better in future, and try to let the good that is in us increase, by the help of God's grace, so that we may bring forth forever fruits of amendment and good works. Amen.

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