Look into the eyes

  There is a story about a young man being pursued by soldiers.  The fugitive comes to a small village and begs for help.  The villagers, moved by his plight, hide him.  However, the soldiers soon arrive and demand to know where the young man is hiding.  They threaten to burn the village and kill everyone unless the boy is handed over.  The village has until dawn to comply.
 
       The people go to their priest and ask what they should do.  The priest, torn between handing the boy over to the enemy or seeing his people killed, withdraws to his study and spends the whole night pouring over the Scriptures and learned books, looking for an answer.  Just before dawn, his eyes fall on these words:  “IT IS BETTER THAT ONE MAN DIE THAN THAT THE WHOLE PEOPLE BE LOST.”  The priest closes his books, calls the soldiers and tells them where the boy is hidden.
 
       After the soldiers lead the fugitive away to be killed, there is a feast in the village because the priest has saved the lives of the people.  However, the priest does not join in the celebration.  Overcome with deep sadness, he remains in his study.  That night an angel comes to him and asks, “What have you done?”  The priest says, “I handed the fugitive over to the enemy.”  “But don’t you know that you have handed over the Messiah?” the angel asks.  “How could I know?” the priest replies anxiously.  The angel responds, “If, instead of reading all of your learned books, you had just visited this young man once and looked into his eyes, you would have known!”
 
       Like the tenants in this Sunday’s Gospel parable, like the priest and villagers, we seek to eliminate and destroy that which threatens our economic and physical security, our sense of personal safety, our self-centered, narrow view of the world with which we have grown comfortable.  However, Christ the Messiah comes with a new, transforming vision for our “vineyard” – a vision of love rather than greed, of peace rather than hostility, of forgiveness rather than vengeance.  May we have the courage and wisdom to dare to “look into the eyes” of Christ, welcoming him into this vineyard of ours, aware that he calls each one of us to the demanding conversion of the Gospel!