The 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 8, 2023

Matthew 21, 33–43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. 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, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”

Many fearful catastrophes are going on in the world.  The latest is what appears to be all-out war in the Middle East.  It also includes a widespread breakdown of law and order in the U.S. and in other nations, and the war in the Ukraine, which is far more dangerous than most people realize.  The prudent Christian is going to confession to prepare.

The Gospel Reading for today’s Mass consists of the Lord’s Parable of the Tenant Farmers.  The Lord told it to provide a warning — a final warning — to the chief priests and the elders to repent of their past sins and of their plans to kill him.  The elders understood that the Lord meant this parable for them; “They knew that he spoke this parable to them” (Mark 12, 12).  They knew that he meant them to understand the tenant farmers as themselves and that he was accusing them and their ancestors of killing the Prophets — either with their hands or through their ignoring or rejecting their words.  They also understood that the landowner was the Father and that Jesus meant his son as himself, styling himself, as they thought, as the  Son of the Father.  Yet they did not take the opportunity given them to think over what the Lord was saying to them.  At the very least, the chief priests and the elders should have realized that he knew of their plans to kill him and that forewarned, he would be able to take measures to protect himself, perhaps by arming his crowd of followers which had entered Jerusalem with him.  But this did not change their intentions.  The situation recalls the many warning Jesus gave Judas at the Last Supper that he knew not only that one of his Apostles would betray him, but which one would do this.  And yet Judas, oblivious to the fact that the Lord could have ordered the loyal Apostles to seize him, remained at the table until the Lord formally dismissed him.

We can also understand this Parable as pertaining to our situation today.  Throughout history since the time of his Son on earth, Almighty God has sent many prophets to call for repentance.  In our own time, Teresa of Calcutta and John Paul II, among many others, have done this in the way God appointed them to do it.  The holiness of life of every saint is a living call to us to repent.  The Virgin Mary, appearing at Fatima a little over a hundred years ago, called on the world to repent, or there would be immediate consequences.  Some have heard and reflected and turned from sin while the bulk of humanity goes its way deeper into sin and the rejection of God.  These prophets — their warnings — were “killed” by indifference and outright hatred of the message, the messengers and their Master.  The Landowner’s “son” will be killed in the final terrible, worldwide persecution of the Church which will purify the faith of many even as the stingy faith of others vanishes.

We who are faithful heed the voice of the Lord Jesus and fortify ourselves for whatever is to come within our lifetimes with the holy Sacraments, through the reading of the Gospels, and through the worship of God at Mass and in prayer.  Perhaps the present crises will be resolved and a vague peace will settle on our world.  But let us be prepared in case this does not happen.