The parable of the vineyard and the wicked tenants (Matthew 21, 33-41) is thought-provoking and can easily be applied to the current situation of the Christian faith in Western societies. In this parable Christ speaks about tenants who, having received from a man the task of looking after his vineyard, refused to render the fruits due to him when the time came. They went so far as to beat and kill his messengers and even his own son.

Jesus told his hearers, who understood that he was referring to them, that the owner of the vineyard would, after destroying the wicked tenants, give it to those who would make ‘fruit’. This is indeed what happened and since Jesus’s own people rejected Him in their majority, the apostles turned to the pagan world of the time.

It is often forgotten that the Lord never tied the survival of His Church to any particular continent or country. This is proved by the fact that the southern flank ofthe Mediterranean, which was Christian till the Arab invasions of the seventh century, today is home to tiny and often persecuted Christian minorities.

The same could sadly happen to the former Christian countries of Europe, including Malta. Pockets of Christians here and there, the ‘little flock’ that Christ had mentioned, will keep the light of the faith flickering in Europe, while the great continents of Africa and Asia will be the new ‘vineyard’ that will render to the Lord the ‘fruit due to him’.