The liturgy of the twenty-seventh Sunday is based on the following readings: Isaiah 5:1-7; Psalm 0; Philippians 4:6-9; Matthew 21:33-43.

There is an unsettling message both in the first reading and in the Gospel! The Prophet Isaiah speaks in allegorical form of a vine, planted and tended to by God, which produces only wild grapes.

The prophet warns the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah that they, the vine, will be abandoned by God because of their injustice and bloodshed.

In other words, the prophet is urging us to make a conscience examination and find out if we too might be taken as that vine which was planted and tended to by God but in the end produce only wild grapes.

The veiled accusation in the allegory of the vine in St. Matthew’s Gospel is more sinister than Isaiah’s complaint of wild grapes from the Lord’s chosen vine.

Here the charge is levelled not against the failed produce, but the tenants, those temporarily in charge of the vineyard.

The chief priests and the elders, those to whom the parable is told, have no difficulty in recognizing the outrageous injustice of the tenants towards the vineyard’s owner.

Jesus then unveils the real application of truth of the parable, comparing it with the historical reception of God’s prophets, and of the Son of God Himself, at the brutal hands of the religious leaders.

Psalm 118 is cited to show that even this twisted human response is foreseen in God’s Providence. The Gospel too calls for a self examination.

What kind of tenants are we?
In psalm 80, the psalmist laments the hard times that Israel is experiencing, recalls the Lord’s singular love in founding the nation of Israel, and pleads for the Lord’s favour again, with the promise of Israel’s future fidelity.

The doctrinal point made in this liturgy is on the fruits of Christian life, as a reality that can be experienced by each person who opens himself or herself to the dynamic presence of God in the world and, particularly, in the Church.

In fact, it is only through the genuine experience of God’s presence that we can bear the expected fruits of Christian life, the practical and operating acknowledgement of God as Lord of all, and an equally practical and operating love of others as the fundamental purpose of my life.

One could say that this Divine Christian life is placed within the dynamic of our natural lives so that, through the normal and natural events of our human lives, we express the fruits of the Divine life within us.

It is important to remember that we need to experience the reality of God within us through a practical assimilation of our minds and hearts, in our thought and actions.

It is this presence that, through our cooperation, will produce the fruits of Christian life, much more than the attempt at external, token, gestures of conformity to God’s Will.

The pastoral point stressed in this liturgy is a necessity to understand what is meant by Christian charity.  

A discovery of the real dynamism of my love for others.  When we can say that things are ours, with a sense of seeing beyond our own selfish and excluding interests. The tenants in the vineyard were called to this type of possession.

There was, indeed, a true way of saying that the vineyard was theirs. Sadly, they were incapable of seeing beyond their own selfish and excluding interests. Precisely, St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi is a reminder to us of the necessity of selfishness.

He exhorts us to keep striving for all that is good and holy with faith that the God of peace will be with us and guide all our intentions.

Ends