Sunday, October 4: 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”

They answered him, “he will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.”

Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

Reflection

Jesus shares a parable in which the tenants fail to care for the vineyard entrusted to them. More tenants come and do even less to care for the land. Finally, the owner sends his son and the tenants put him to death. What a terrible ending!

Whenever this parable comes around, I wonder: Would I be one of those lousy tenants? If I think of it that way, the parable is really lost on me. There is no deeper lesson, no deeper meaning. I simply put it out of my mind.

But if I think of the parable in the NOW, in the present, I begin to wonder: What “field” has been given to me? My fellow parishioners? My spouse? My children and grandchildren? My material goods? Even my own body?

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done.”

I think this parable reminds me to receive all that has been given to me spiritually – all that grounds my life. For me, that includes Saint Mother Theodore Guerin; her Daughters of the Woods; her Associates; the Eucharist; daily meditation; and more books on meditation than I deserve to have.

It also includes people of faith who befriend me, and sometimes even mentor and guide me toward a clearer vision.

This is the field I must tend as a good tenant – one who does not reject the cornerstone.