Today’s readings: Isaiah 5, 1-7; Philippians 4, 6-9; Matthew 21, 33-43.
There is more general concern today for the spiritual sensibility of the individual which can also be translated in terms of care of the self. Caring for one’s self has nothing to do with self-adulation. We need to be protective of ourselves in this day and age, to grip firmly to what builds and sustains the human image in us and discern what instead disfigures or even destroys that image.
The Scripture readings today, particularly Isaiah and Matthew, when read insightfully can provide depth with regard to the contemporary condition in which we live. In our context, broadly speaking, we all come from a tradition of values inspired by the Christian religion and we are all experiencing the crisis of that tradition of meaning that guaranteed more character and personal stability in the past.
The Lord’s vineyard, according to Isaiah, was on “a fertile hillside”, well protected and cared for. But its wall was knocked down and it was trampled on, making way for briar and thorn to flourish. In the gospel, Jesus speaks again in almost the same terms of this vineyard but concludes the story with a very serious admonition: “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit”.
It is a given that both Isaiah and Matthew are addressing Israel as God’s chosen people and lamenting the decadence in which Israel steeped. Yet today we can read this vineyard parable as an allegory of consequences we all personally incur whenever we do not cultivate life and our daily living.
Ignoring the serious consequences the general void of meaning can have on life, both collectively and individually, makes it harder to find remedies. Philosopher John Haldane, in his book Seeking Meaning and Making Sense, writes that in our search for meaning and in our struggle to make sense of our own lives, “Sometimes the particularities and details of immediate concerns obscure the fact that what are at issue are larger questions”.
The fact that so often fundamental matters just give way to immediate concerns is a very serious issue in our daily caring of the self. This lack of attentiveness for the details inside, linked with who we are and what we actually stand for, is represented allegorically by both Isaiah and Jesus today and can be a timely eye-opener. What are we living for? What is it that gives shape to or distorts the way we live meaningfully?
Life’s meaning, when not treasured, can easily be lost. And once lost, it can be hard to recover. We need to be attentive for what shapes our inner landscape of feelings, beliefs, sensibilities, and moods. We suffer today from too many fatal addictions in the way we manage our lives. Fatal, not only in the physical sense but also in the moral and psychological sense.
In her diaries and letters, Etty Hilesum, who was sent to Auschwitz where she died in September 1943, wrote: “I catch myself making all sorts of minor but telling adjustments in anticipation of life in a labour camp”. She believed strongly that life has its own meaning, even if it takes a lifetime to find it. But keeping an eye on all sorts of adjustments we make can save us from fatal consequences.
Lack of care of the self can make of life simply a wasteland – making us lose direction, sense, and meaning. In Isaiah’s words, it is when the cry of distress and bloodshed replace justice and integrity. It is, in the words of the gospel parable, the disappointment and void we experience whenever at vintage time, the moment when we turn on ourselves to find the inner strength that can keep us going, we find only sour grapes.
Cultural Christianity is becoming more and more fragile, and the guarantee for the wellbeing and faith of the individual can no longer be sought solely in it. It is on the level of the individual that personal belief and integrity need to be jealously safeguarded. That will continue to make it a source of inner strength.