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 the...