Sunday – 27th Week in Ordinary Time – A

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you, and a blessed 27th Sunday in ordinary time to you and your families. The image joining today's readings, all three of them, is the vineyard, something carefully planted, protected, and cultivated by God, from which he rightly expects fruit, just as Jesus saw the fig tree in leaf, and therefore expected to find fruit behind those leaves, so too, the Lord behind our exterior righteousness, desires to find a clean heart, that which is honorable and good.

Isaiah speaks in fact of God's disappointment when his vineyard produces only wild grapes. Jesus develops this image further. The problem is no longer only bad fruit, but tenants who begin behaving as though the vineyard belongs to them.

The question running throughout the entire set of readings is therefore simple. What fruit is God finding in the life he has entrusted to me?

Saint Paul gives that fruit a name: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious.

In the first reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah, God laments the fact that he had entrusted his vineyard to his people, and yet no pure fruit was produced. Listen to what he says, “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done? Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?” (Isaiah 5:3–4).

“What more was there to do?” This is almost the cry of a disappointed love. God is not an indifferent landowner demanding profit. He has given himself, his very self, to his people.

And then he goes on to say, “Now I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: Take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break through its wall, let it be trampled! Yes, I will make it a ruin: It shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briars; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished plant. He looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed! For justice, but hark, the outcry!” (Isaiah 5:7).

Isaiah finally tells us what the fruit should have been: justice and righteousness. Religion that produces no transformation in the way we treat others has failed to produce the fruit God desires.

In the second reading from Saint Paul's letter to the Philippians, we hear him exhort the brothers of Philippi in this way: “Brothers and sisters, have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7).

My brothers, notice that Saint Paul reminds us that Christian fruitfulness begins inside the heart. Instead of allowing anxiety to dominate us in our fears, we bring everything to God in prayer. The fruit of this time spent with God is peace that does not depend upon having everything under control.

How often do we obsess about being in control of everything, and we fail to spend the time entrusting it all to God.

Saint Paul goes on to say, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious. If there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Here we hear Saint Paul almost giving us a description of the good grapes God desires. What we repeatedly allow into our minds eventually shapes who we become. Christian discipleship, therefore, includes learning where we allow the mind to dwell.

Saint Paul says, “Think about these things”: truth, honor, justice, purity, love, graciousness, anything that is worthy of praise in the eyes of God. That's the good fruit that we're in search of.

Finally, today's Gospel, where Jesus once again draws upon the analogy of the vineyard. Jesus deliberately echoes Isaiah. Again, everything necessary has been provided, but he introduces another issue. The vineyard is entrusted to tenants. It does not belong to them. This is stewardship.

And he says, “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, ‘Surely they will respect my son’” (Matthew 21:34–37).