TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Year A

Readings

First Reading
Is 5:1–7

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 80:9, 12, 13–14, 15–16, 19–20

Second Reading
Phil 4:6–9

Gospel
Mt 21:33–43

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Taken from the Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois

The modern reader must be alerted to two points when approaching Matthew’s version of the parable of the wicked tenants. First, the parable as it came from Jesus has been reworked by Matthew, who received it from Mark. The most obvious change he makes is to describe the fate of the wicked tenants—“He will put those wretched men to a wretched death”—in a way that would evoke the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Second, historically Christian readers have interpreted the rejection and replacement of the tenants to mean that Israel has been rejected and replaced by the Church as God’s people. The parable does not support that reading. It is not the vineyard (Israel) but the tenants (the leaders of the people) who are rejected and replaced.

Given Matthew’s reworking, what does this parable have to say to us? In both the parable and its biblical prototype, the song of the vineyard in today’s first reading from Isaiah, the core issue is the absolute necessity of bearing “good fruit.” This is a biblical image for living in faithful obedience to God’s will. It is the kind of life that, Paul says, frees us from anxiety and assures us of peace.

The copyright for the Sunday Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul