The following homily was preached by the Master of the Order during the gathering of novices of the provinces of Europe in Caleruega
Mark 12:1-12, Caleruega
We gather around the table of the Eucharist, the table of thanksgiving, to give thanks to the Lord for manifold blessings we have received from Him. And here in Caleruega, the birthplace of St. Dominic, we thank God for the gift of our Dominican vocation.
The parable in the Gospel begins with generosity. A man plants a vineyard. He digs the pit, builds the fence, constructs the tower, and then entrusts it to others. This is where the story begins, and perhaps where our lives begin too. We awake each morning in a world we did not make. The air, the sunlight, our capacity to love, our friendships, our faith, all are given. We live in a vineyard that belongs to another.
Yet the tenants in the parable gradually forget this truth. Their sin begins not with violence but with forgetfulness. They cease to live as stewards and begin to think as owners. What was entrusted to them becomes, in their imagination, their possession. Is this not the temptation of every age? Humanity often seeks freedom apart from God, imagining that dependence upon the Creator limits human dignity. But the opposite is true. When we separate ourselves from God, we do not become greater; we become imprisoned within ourselves. The creature flourishes not by denying the Creator but by remaining in communion with Him.
The tenants reject the son because his presence reminds them that the vineyard is not theirs. Yet the Son comes not to take away the vineyard but to restore its meaning. He comes so that they might enjoy it as a gift rather than defend it as a possession.
What the parable teaches about stewardship of the vineyard is true of our vocation as well. A vocation is not something we create, earn, or possess. It is a gift entrusted to us, and brought to maturity only through faithful care. The word that best describes our response to this gift is stewardship: a way of living before God in which what has been given is received with gratitude, cultivated with care, shared with generosity, and ultimately offered back to the One from whom it came. Stewardship is a spiritual way of life, and it unfolds in four movements.
First, receiving with gratitude. Both the formand and the formator begin here. Vocation is a gift. To receive it with gratitude is already to begin responding to it rightly.
Second, cultivating with care. Growth in vocation is often slow and hidden, like a seed growing beneath the soil. It requires patience, honesty, discipline, and trust. The one in formation grows through prayer, study, fraternal life, and obedience. The formator serves this growth through discernment and restraint, guiding without controlling and encouraging without possessing.
Third, sharing in charity. What is received and formed is never meant to be kept for oneself. Every vocation is given for the Church and for the mission. It bears fruit only when it is offered in service to others.
Fourth, standing before God in accountability. Stewardship always leads to responsibility before the Lord. The one in formation learns that life is a response to a call. The formator also stands before God, accountable for the care of another’s vocation. In this way, formation is not the management of a process but the shared care of a mystery. God calls, God gives, and God entrusts. He invites both the one called and the one who accompanies him to live in fidelity, so that what has been received as gift may one day bear fruit for the life of the Church and the salvation of the world.
Let us therefore ask for the grace to live not as owners but as grateful stewards, recognizing that all we have is gift, and that the greatest gift of all is the Beloved Son, sent by the Father for the life of the world.
