27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The joy of a vineyard,
misplaced in Eden's accounting,
with super bunches
for vigorous bountiful vintage,
forms an older owner's
ideal investment
for sharecropping:
a bunch for you
and one for me,
with careful weighing
at the end.
A dozen families,
plus the owner
can sing
the virtues of their vineyard,
not overly burdened
in pruning the newer vines,
with ground kept loose
before a rain,
and weeds yanked free
when rain has made
the earth compliant.
How sad for sharecroppers
to try to steal
instead of properly divide
when a vineyard paradise
provides a bounty easily measured
by handfuls of labor
and handfuls of ripened fruit,
with an honest owner's supervisor
tagging baskets
of labor's shared investment.
October 5, 2014
Bonaventure Stefun, OFM Cap.
See more reflections here.