4.10.20
Mt. 21:33-43
One of the most beautiful books in the Bible is the book of Psalms. Even today it remains unchanged. Every second psalm is uttered in various parts of the world since it is the official prayer of the church and also the supreme prayer of the Jewish brethren. The authorship of the Psalms is attributed to King David though he is not the author of all the psalms. However, these Psalms made David immortal. It speaks to us about the fact that He was the true shepherd of Israel after God’s own heart. Anyhow, in the same Bible we see the series of tragedies that came to Kind David especially toward the end of his life. Kind David had a very humble beginning. He did not have royal ancestry. He was an ordinary shepherd boy. Yahweh blessed him abundantly that there was no other kind in Israel who enjoyed the pomp and glory of being the king of Israel. But did David was he accountable for all the graces that he had received?
2 Samuel 11 we see how David failed in his accountability to God. When his army was fighting a war with the Ammonites he remained in Jerusalem and to satisfy his lust, he desires Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, his soldier. He lies with her and she becomes pregnant. When David comes to know about this, he was not ready to be accountable for his deed. He calls Uriah to the palace and insists him to go to his house and relax with his wife, he was not ready to leave his king. Again David made him drunk and tries to send him home so that he could wash his hand from the illicit pregnancy of Bathsheba. His loyalty and faithfulness were par excellent, he remained in the place, and at the end as per the order of David his troops betrayed Uriah and he was killed on the battlefield… In the end, the justice of God comes in search of David through Prophet Nathan and pint out to him: “you are the man.” who failed in his accountability to God, his subjects, and oneself.
One of the evils that destroy our society like cancer is corruption. We see the presence of evil in all the spheres of life, whether it is politics, sports, defense, construction work, etc. If we analyze our social scenario one of the root causes of poverty in the whole world is corruption by those who are in authority and the people under them. All those who are involved in this evil, they lack accountability and credibility. They all wanted to be successful but not be fruitful.
The gospel passage of the day exhorts us to be accountable to both God and our fellow brethren. It is quite insightful to notice that this issue of being accountable is always the problem of humanity. The gospels were formed in the first century and even at that time, the problem of corruption and accountability were sensitive issues. If we go further even the Genesis story of Adam and Eve we observe the same issue. They were not ready to be accountable for all the graces they received. Their temptation was to be like God by consuming the forbidden fruit. Once they ate the forbidden fruit, they were not ready to be accountable to God, to one another, and also to nature. As we continue the journey from Genesis to other Old Testament books we see the story of a God who demands accountability from humanity and the story of failed humanity in being accountable to God.
The parable of the master and the wicked servants summarizes the entire salvation history. Everything that we have is not our own rather it is a freely given gift from God. Our life, talents, wealth, time, etc. In the parable, we see the owner sends his servants to collect the produce. However, they mistreat the servants in various ways. Some of them were stoned by them, some others were thrashed and others were killed. Finally, the owner sends his only son, thinking that they would respect him and be accountable to him because he represents the master himself. In the end, to possess the vineyard, they killed his Son. Therefore, the Master destroys the wicked tenants and handed it over to the faithful servants.
Abba father always reminded the people of Israel about the covenant they made with him. In their history we see the intervention of judges, prophets, none of them were accepted and they had a very bitter end. They were stoned, thrashed and some others were killed. Finally, Jesus too had the same destiny that the prophets had; He came with the Good News of God’s love and remained them about being accountable to God through his teachings. He questioned the corruption and the hypocrisy that was prevalent in society. Nevertheless, those unpleasant facts that he pointed out gifted him the punishment of crucifixion. Jesus was rejected by the chosen people; however, he became the cornerstone of the new Israel who was redeemed by his blood.
We are called to be accountable and fruitful in our life. We cannot take it for granted the gift of life that we have received. At times the temptation may be too successful than being fruitful by seeking shortcuts and easy-going, forgetting the giver of life himself. The story of King David teaches enlightens us with this insight of the need to be accountable to God for all the manifold blessings that we have received in our lives. As we continue our life journey let us pray for this grace that we may sensitive to God who blessed us with this gift of life and the grace to be accountable to him for the showers of blessings that we have received him.a