
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! In situations like this our mind starts going crazy as it tries to make sense of what has happened. It starts searching for answers as more and more questions are produced. I am not going to give you something to make sense of the recent tragedy but I would like to invite you to behold the suffering we have been informed of. However it is not about replaying in your memory the graphic scenes the media have fed us with. St Paul in our second reading wrote: ‘Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour.’ The more we find ourselves at loss, the more we find ourselves confused, the more we find ourselves abandoned the more we are called to turn to the Lord of all consolation. The Saviour who was rejected but has become the keystone in the history of the family of the humankind and in the history of every woman and man created in the likeness of God and redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb without blemish.
After hearing the parable about the wicked tenants the Jewish chief priests and leaders were deeply convinced that the owner of the vineyard ‘will bring those wretches to a wretched end.’ However Jesus Christ not only told the parable but lived it as he was the son who in a couple of days was to be seized and threw out of the Holy City of Jerusalem and killed on the Calvary. What his and ours heavenly Father did after it had happened was to condemn the injustice inflicted upon his only begotten Son by raising him to new life on Easter Sunday. The Risen Lord has become the source of life, the wellspring of eternal life.
When Jesus Christ was subjected to suffering and death, which is a part of our human life, he became the precious vine stock into which we are grafted, in this life and for life eternal. In the Gospel he said: ‘I am the true vine you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will bear much fruit.’ Jesus’ Incarnation and death have created the compatibility between divine and human to the extent that what is human – us can we grafted into what is divine – the Lord. It can be grafted, it can blossom; it can bear much fruit which is about giving life according to the example of our Blessed Lord.
My Dear fellow believers! Behold the suffering you have witnessed in recent days. Behold also the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. From beholding these we are assured that injustice has been already condemned by the Resurrection and glorification of the Son of God. Many today feel again like the disciples of Jesus on Good Friday when everything seemed to have been lost. In the darkness of despair of our recent Good Friday there is however the Good News of new life. Today we speak about it in terms of faith and hope but the day will come when we will be talking about it in gratitude and eternal thanksgiving.