<\/p>\n
B<\/span>eloved brothers and sisters,<\/span><\/p>\n Today\u2019s Gospel places before us one of the most powerful and serious parables spoken by the Saviour \u2013 the parable of the wicked tenants.<\/strong><\/p>\n A rich man plants a vineyard, fences it, prepares everything necessary, and entrusts it to tenants. Then he goes away. When the time of fruit comes, he sends his servants to receive what is due to him. But the tenants beat them, kill one, and stone another. Finally, the master sends his own son, saying, \u201cThey will respect my son.\u201d But they kill him too.<\/span><\/p>\n This is, of course, a parable about the chosen people, about the prophets, and ultimately about the Son of God, who comes into the world and is rejected and crucified. But it speaks not only of the past. It speaks also of us.<\/span><\/p>\n For the vineyard is the world that God has entrusted to us, and we are its workers.<\/span><\/p>\n Everything we have is, in the final analysis, received: life, time, freedom, gifts, the people God places beside us, the Church, faith. God gives us all these not for us to regard them as our absolute property, but to bear fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n And here lies the essential question of the Gospel:<\/span><\/p>\n What fruit do we bring to God?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n For it is possible to live in a \u201cvineyard\u201d that does not belong to us and yet behave as if we were its masters. It is possible to receive life as a gift and forget the Giver. To receive freedom and turn it into autonomy from God. To receive faith and reduce it to habit. To receive love and respond with indifference.<\/span><\/p>\n The wicked tenants in the Gospel did not receive an uncared\u2011for vineyard; the master had done everything for it. The problem was not God\u2019s gift, but man\u2019s response to the gift.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHis Son\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The climax of the parable is the coming of the son.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFinally, he sent his son to them, saying, \u2018They will respect my son.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Here we see the great mystery of God\u2019s love.<\/span><\/p>\n God does not give up on man even when man rejects Him. He sends prophets, sends His word, calls to repentance, and finally He sends His own Son.<\/span><\/p>\n But we know what the world does to the Son: they cast him \u201cout of the vineyard\u201d and crucify him.<\/span><\/p>\n However, what men consider defeat becomes, in God\u2019s plan, the beginning of salvation:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Cross is not God\u2019s failure. The Cross is the victory of God\u2019s love over sin and death.<\/span><\/p>\n The Mother of God \u2013 the opposite response to the wicked tenants<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n And precisely here, in the days after the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, we can see an extraordinary contrast.<\/span><\/p>\n The tenants in the Gospel say, in essence, \u201cWe do not want the vineyard to belong to the Master. Let it be ours.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Mother of God says exactly the opposite.<\/span><\/p>\n Her entire life can be summed up in the words:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBehold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She does not turn God\u2019s gift into her own property. She does not say, \u201cMy life is mine.\u201d Rather, she receives it as a gift and returns it to God.<\/span><\/p>\n Therefore, in the Mother of God we see the man who bears fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n The fruit of her life is obedience.<\/span> If the parable asks us, \u201cWhat have you done with the vineyard that God entrusted to you?\u201d, the Mother of God shows us the answer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWatch, stand firm in the faith\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Today\u2019s Apostle beautifully completes this teaching. Saint Paul says:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWatch, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Notice how concrete this word is.<\/span><\/p>\n It is not enough to say, \u201cI believe in God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Faith must produce fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWatch\u201d \u2013 that is, do not live without heed, as if life were only yours.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cStand firm in the faith\u201d \u2013 because there will be temptations, doubts, sufferings, and moments when we will be tempted to drive God out of the \u201cvineyard\u201d of our lives.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBe courageous, be strong\u201d \u2013 because the Christian life requires patience and steadfastness.<\/span><\/p>\n And then: \u201cLet all that you do be done in love.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This is perhaps the simplest definition of a life that bears fruit.<\/span><\/p>\n What do we do with the Lord\u2019s vineyard?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Brothers and sisters,<\/span><\/p>\n perhaps the question of this Sunday is not, \u201cAm I a believing person?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n But a much deeper one:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat fruit does my faith produce?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If God has given me a family, what fruit do I bring in my family?<\/span><\/p>\n If He has given me people around me, what fruit do I bring in my relationships with them?<\/span><\/p>\n If He has given me freedom, do I use it for good or for selfishness?<\/span><\/p>\n If He has given me time, how do I use it?<\/span><\/p>\n If He has given me faith, is it seen in my life?<\/span><\/p>\n If He has given me the ability to forgive, do I forgive?<\/span><\/p>\n If He has given me the strength to love, do I love?<\/span><\/p>\n For at the end of life, God will not ask us only what we have received, but also what we have done with what we received.<\/span><\/p>\n Our lives are His vineyards.<\/span><\/p>\n The Dormition of the Mother of God and the fruit of a life<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n That is why it is so fitting to hear this Gospel after the Dormition of the Mother of God.<\/span><\/p>\n In the Mother of God we see that the true fruitfulness of life does not mean having as much as possible, being as powerful as possible, or being recognized by people.<\/span><\/p>\n It means being able to say, at the end of life:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLord, what You gave me, I entrust to You.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Her Dormition is not a tragic separation, but the passage to the fullness of life with God. That is why the Church calls her \u201cmore honourable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She shows us that man finds his fulfilment not when he appropriates everything, but when he gives himself to God.<\/span><\/p>\n And this too is the mystery of today\u2019s Gospel:<\/span><\/p>\n Life becomes fruitful when we cease to consider ourselves its masters and acknowledge ourselves as workers in God\u2019s vineyard.<\/span><\/p>\n Let us therefore ask the Mother of God to help us not to be workers who keep the fruits only for themselves, but people who know how to return to God what they have received from Him.<\/span><\/p>\n And when God comes to seek the fruits of our vineyard, may He find in us what Saint Paul asks of us today:<\/span><\/p>\n steadfast faith, a strengthened heart, and, above all, love.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beloved brothers and sisters, today\u2019s Gospel places before us one of the most powerful and serious parables spoken by the Saviour \u2013 the parable of the wicked tenants. A rich man plants a vineyard, fences it, prepares everything necessary, and entrusts it to tenants. Then he goes away. When the time of fruit comes, he sends his servants to receive what is due to him. But the tenants beat them, kill one, and stone another. Finally, the master sends his own son, saying, \u201cThey will respect my son.\u201d But they kill him too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anunturi","category-predici","category-stiri"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NLBd-2XY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pilda_lucratorilor_viei_celor_rai.jpg?fit=1173%2C800&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11406"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11413,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions\/11413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ortodoxmd.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHer fruit is humility.<\/span>
\nHer fruit is purity of heart.<\/span>
\nHer fruit is faith.<\/span>
\nHer fruit is love.<\/span>
\nAnd, above all, her fruit is Christ Himself.<\/span><\/p>\n