Reflection/Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 8th October 2023 (The Lord's Vineyard.

Reflection/Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time 8th October 2023

Isaiah 5:1-7. Psalm 80:8,11,12-13,14-15,17b,18 - 19. Philippians 4:6-9. Matthew 21:33-43.

Theme: The Lord's Vineyard.

The first reading and the Gospel use the image of a vineyard. In the first reading, Prophet Isaiah tells us that Israel is the Lord's vineyard that the Lord loved, but it yielded only sour grape.

Despite the care and interest of God in Israel, Israel and Judah failed to carry out the will of him who had made them what they were. They produced bloodshed instead of justice and a rebellious outcry in place of true obedience. God's vineyard had failed him.

In today's Gospel, Our Lord Jesus Christ takes up the same image of the vineyard but with a difference: Isaiah says that the vineyard will be destroyed; Jesus says that the tenants will be replaced and the vineyard will be kept. The tenants in the vineyard refused to remit the produce from the vineyard to the landowner. They compounded their treachery by maltreating the emissaries of the landowner. The last straw was when they actually killed the son of the landowner. That was too much for the landowner to bear. He proceeded that "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in due seasons" (Matt.21:41).

The landowner is God. The vineyard is the house of Israel. The slaves sent by the landowner are the prophets. The landowner's son is Jesus himself. The Son, the cornerstone, although rejected by the builders (cf.1 Pet.2:6-7), fully inherited God's vineyard. He inherited it in a definitive way with the sacrifice on the Cross and by the power of his resurrection.

God expected fruit from the vineyard of the house of Israel. But it yielded wild grapes only (cf. Isa.5:4). Just as a farmer expects fruit from the field he cultivated with care, so God expects fruit from us.

How much bitter fruit is to be found on earth! We see it every day: war, hatred, injustice, every sort of evil. Bitter fruits that poison hearts and whole human communities. Where do they come from, if not from the refusal to welcome the messenger of the Lord, and especially his Son, our Redeemer? It is possible to produce fruits of conversion and peace by opening our hearts to God's love.

God is patient. The landowner sent his slaves twice before he sent his son to gather fruit. In the end, there will be the triumph of the ultimate justice of God.

St. Paul, in the second reading, tells us what we must do to yield good fruits. "Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Phil.4:8).

We are God's vineyard and are beautifully made to produce good fruit. The Jewish leaders to whom Jesus' parable is originally told fail to produce good fruit. Instead of producing justice, they produced bloodshed; instead of producing righteousness, they produced distress. Therefore, they are disenfranchised, and the vineyard has passed on to the Church, the new Israel of which we are by the virtue of our baptism. We must know that the judgment of destruction pronounced on the original tenants is a warning to us, the new tenants. As new tenants, we must not be complacent, believing that we will always remain the people of God, no matter what. No, we will remain the people of God provided we remain true to our identity as Christians and live lives that reflect that identity.

May God grant us the graces to remain true to our identity as Christians by yielding the good fruits we are expected to yield through Christ our Lord. Amen.