04 October 2020 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
Matthew 21:33-43
Fr. Fernando Armellini SCJ
Claretian Publications
In the gospel, Jesus uses the image of the vineyard: a master plants, with a hedge around it, digs a mill there, builds a tower, entrusts it to tenants and goes. At harvest time he sends his servants to collect the produce. But the farmers do not want to deliver the benefits. They mistreat and kill the envoys. As a final attempt he sends his son, but they kill him too. They are convinced of being able to be masters of the field that has been entrusted to them.
All the details of the gospel story have a symbolic meaning. The master is the Lord. He lavishes so much care and expresses an immense love for his people. The hedge is the Torah, the law that God has revealed to his people, to protect it from enemies, that is, from the proposals of thoughtless life that would lead to ruin. The tenants are the elders, religious and political leaders, whose task is to place the people in ideal conditions to produce the fruits that the owner expects.
The envoys are the prophets who, warn Israel to be faithful to the covenant. But they paid no attention and were worse than their forbearers” (Jer 7:25-26). The tenants wanted to take possession of the field, claimed to manage the “vineyard” by themselves. They represent those who want to do things without God and consider His gifts as goods to be misappropriated.
The son is Jesus. The time of harvest is the time of God’s judgment the day of intervention for salvation. At the end of the parable, Jesus involves his audience and asks their opinion on what behavior to suggest to the owner. They convincingly respond: “The master will bring those evil men to an evil end”.
But Jesus follows a different logic. God intervenes to make evil serve the good, making it yield a masterpiece of salvation. The leaders of the people take the Son and throw him out of the vineyard. This is what happened to Jesus. He was deemed a blasphemer, impure and for this he was brought out of the city walls and executed. But God in raising him, glorified him and made him Lord, the cornerstone of a new building.
The end result of the intervention of the master is the delivery of the vineyard to other workers who will make it produce fruits. This is his gesture of love and salvation. Today, every Christian is a vine grower from which the Lord expects delivery of the fruits.
Translated by Fr. John Ledesma SDB
Abridged by Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF
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