He will lease the vineyard to other tenants

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Collect

Almighty ever-living God, who in the abundance of your kindness surpass the merits and the desires of those who entreat you, pour out your mercy upon us to pardon what conscience dreads and to give what prayer does not dare to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Amen. 

The vineyard of the Lord God of hosts is the House of Israel.
Is 5:1-7

A reading from the book of Isaiah

Let me sing to my friend the song of his love for his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
He dug the soil, cleared it of stones, and planted choice vines in it. In the middle he built a tower, he dug a press there too. He expected it to yield grapes, but sour grapes were all that it gave.

And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
I ask you to judge between my vineyard and me.
What could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done? I expected it to yield grapes. Why did it yield sour grapes instead?

Very well, I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge for it to be grazed on, and knock down its wall for it to be trampled on.
I will lay it waste, unpruned, undug; overgrown by the briar and the thorn. I will command the clouds to rain no rain on it.
Yes, the vineyard of the Lord God of hosts is the House of Israel, and the men of Judah that chosen plant. He expected justice, but found bloodshed, integrity, but only a cry of distress.

The Word of the Lord.
℟. Thanks be to God.

Psalm 79(80):9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20

℟. The vineyard of the Lord is the House of Israel.

You brought a vine out of Egypt;
to plant it, you drove out the nations.
It stretched out its branches to the sea,
to the Great River it stretched out its shoots. ℟.

Then why have you broken down its walls?
It is plucked by all who pass by.
It is ravaged by the boar of the forest,
devoured by the beasts of the field. ℟.

God of hosts, turn again, we implore,
look down from heaven and see.
Visit this vine and protect it,
the vine your right hand has planted. ℟.

And we shall never forsake you again:
give us life that we may call upon your name.
God of hosts, bring us back;
let your face shine on us and we shall be saved. ℟.

The God of peace will be with you.
Phil 4:6-9

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians

There is no need to worry; but if there is anything you need, pray for it, asking God for it with prayer and thanksgiving, and that peace of God, which is so much greater than we can understand, will guard your hearts and your thoughts, in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, fill your minds with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good and pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise. Keep doing all the things that you learnt from me and have been taught by me and have heard or seen that I do. Then the God of peace will be with you.

The Word of the Lord.
℟. Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation
Jn 15:16

Alleluia. ℟. Alleluia.
I chose you from the world to go out and to bear fruit,
fruit that will last says the Lord.
℟. Alleluia.

He will lease the vineyard to other tenants.
Mt 21:33-43

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people : ‘Listen to another parable.
There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad. When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third.
Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way.

Finally he sent his son to them. “They will respect my son” he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance.” So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’
They answered, ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him when the season arrives’.
Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the scriptures: It was the stone rejected by the builders that became the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing and it is wonderful to see?

I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.’

The Gospel of the Lord.
℟. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Reflection

Jesus tells this parable specifically to the religious leaders of his time. Today, we are all listening to it—so he is speaking to us.

The conclusion deserves our attention: “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes”?’”

Our faith has one foundation: Jesus the Messiah. From generation to generation, we have introduced religious practices that we think will save us, but little by little, through them, we have rejected the Cornerstone; we have rejected Jesus, who is the one and only Saviour, the one and only Mediator between us and our heavenly Father.

We have become blinded by these religious practices. We feel satisfied that we are doing our duty and, because of this, we feel that we are not far from God. Then we look around us and see numbers in the Church—not the stone building, but the living Church—continuing to decline. We have become a people who have lost our GPS and find ourselves morally lost. We look within ourselves and discover an emptiness that seems impossible to fill.

The reason is that we have rejected the Cornerstone. We need to put the Messiah back in first place in our lives. Only one can sit upon the Throne!

What can I do to strengthen my faith in Jesus and profess him as the Lord and Saviour of my life? What can we do as groups within the Church to rekindle the flame of faith in Maltese society? 

Prayer

Our Father, we ask your forgiveness because we have allowed religious practices to take the place of a personal relationship with you through Jesus. We ask you to renew your Holy Spirit within us, so that we may be ready to proclaim, in every way possible, through both our example and our words, that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and Saviour. May we not leave this responsibility in the hands of others, but allow you to use us as your witnesses. Thank you, Lord.  

 

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