THE DANGER OF STIFLING THE VOICE OF THE PROPHETS
When the Roman troops destroyed Jerusalem in the year 70 and the Jewish people disappeared as a nation, Christians made a terrible reading of this tragic deed. Israel, the people so loved by God, hadn’t known how to respond to God’s calls. Their religious leaders had killed the prophets sent by God, had crucified lastly God’s own Son. Now, God abandons them and permits their destruction: Israel will be substituted by the Christian Church.
Thus the first Christians read the parable of the «murdering vineyard workers», directed by Jesus to the high priests of Israel. The workers charged with taking care of the «Lord’s vineyard» go about killing one after another of the servants that God sends them to gather the fruits. Lastly they also kill the son of the owner, with the intention of overcoming the inheritance and ending up with the vineyard. The lord can’t do anything else but put them to death and hand his vineyard to other more faithful workers.
This parable wasn’t gathered by the Gospel writers to nourish the pride of the Church, the new Israel, in the face of the Jewish people cast down by Rome and dispersed throughout the world. The concern was something else: Can the same thing happen to the Christian Church that happened to ancient Israel? Can she defraud God’s expectations? And if the church doesn’t produce the fruits God expects, what paths will God follow to bring his plans of salvation to completion?
The danger is always the same. Israel felt herself secure: they had the Sacred Scriptures; they possessed the temple; the cult was celebrated scrupulously; the Law was preached; the institutions were defended. Nothing new seemed to be needed. It was enough to keep everything in order. It’s the most dangerous thing that can happen to a religion: that the voice of the prophets gets stifled and the priests who feel themselves owners of «the lord’s vineyard», want to administer it as their own property.
It’s also our danger. Thinking that the faithfulness of the Church is guaranteed by belonging to the New Covenant. Feeling ourselves secure for having Christ in possession. Yet God isn’t the property of anyone. God’s vineyard belongs only to God. And if the Church doesn’t produce the fruits God awaits, God will keep opening up new paths of salvation.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
