Pope Francis explained Jesus’ message behind the dramatic parable and the reason for its “sad ending.”
“The landowner did everything well, with love,” he said. “He himself toiled to plant the vineyard; he surrounded it with a fence to protect it; dug a wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he entrusted his vineyard to some tenants, leasing his prized possession to them, thus treating them on an equal plane, so that his vineyard might be well cultivated and might bear fruit.”
Under these circumstances, there should have been a good outcome, with everyone fairly sharing the fruits of the harvest — but instead, “ungrateful and greedy thoughts insinuated themselves into the minds of the tenants,” he said.
Ungratefulness and greediness are always at the root of conflicts, he underlined, adding that the same process can also happen in our hearts.
“When someone forgets this gratitude to God, he ends up no longer facing his own situation and his own limits with the joy of feeling loved and saved, but with the sad illusion of needing neither love nor salvation,” the pope said.
He noted that when we no longer let ourselves be loved, we become prisoners to greed and the desire to have more than others or to be more important than others.