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Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

October 04, 2026

Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.

Introit

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,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Is 5:1-7

Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 3 “And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. 4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 5 “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!”

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

R/. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.

Second Reading Phil 4:6-9 2

Do not worry about anything, but in everything let your requests be made known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Alleluia Cf. Jn. 15:16

Gospel Mt 21:33-43

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: 33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 “When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 “Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 “Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”

Catena Nova

What pertained to the husbandmen, God Himself did, the hedging it round about, the planting the vineyard, and all the rest, and He left little for them to do; to take care of what was there, and to preserve what was given to them. For nothing was left undone, but all accomplished; and not even so did they gain, and this, when they had enjoyed such great blessings from Him. (St. John Chrysostom)

Throughout the Scriptures the Lord continually likens human souls to vines….It is human souls that he calls his vineyard, and the hedge he has put round them is the security of his commandments. In addition, the Lord has raised our thoughts to heaven by the examples of saints of past ages. He has kept them from sinking to the earth where they would deserve to be trampled on, and he wills that the bonds of love, like the tendrils of a vine, should attach us to our neighbors and make us rest on them, so that always climbing upward like vines growing on trees, we may reach the loftiest heights (St. Basil the Great).

Take care that your vineyard does not bring forth thorns instead of grapes and your vintage produce vinegar instead of wine. Anyone who gathers in the grapes, without sharing them with the poor, is collecting vinegar instead of wine and anyone who stores his harvests, without sharing them with the needy, is not setting aside the fruit of almsgiving but the briars of greed (St. Maximus of Turin).

I view my whole self, soul and body both and, not just my soul, as the one vine that I may not neglect but must dig about it and cultivate it, to prevent it being overrun by unwelcome weeds and by the roots of other plants, or be smothered by its own offshoots. Pruned, it must be or it will grow wild: trimmed so that it may yield more fruit. It must be altogether enclosed. fenced-in, or every passer-by will freely plunder it; the greatest danger of all, being that the wild boar from the thickets. … may ravage it (cf. Ps 79:14). …It must be cultivated with the greatest care, otherwise the noble shoots of this choice vine, will go to seed, will turn into a worthless vine and, far from delighting both God and man (cf. Ps 103:15), may only succeed in saddening both of them. It must also be guarded with the utmost watchfulness that all the exertion spent on it and hopes placed in it, may not be extinguished, either by stealthy stealing, of those who devour the poor in secret (Hab 3:14) or by sudden and unprepared disasters, It was in this sense, as though referring to a vine in his keeping that the First Man was given Paradise that, as Scripture says, “he should cultivate it and keep it” (Gn 2:15). (Bl. Isaac of Stella)

The divine Husbandman is Jesus. It is left to us to allow him to nourish us, while we cooperate with the designs of divine Providence....For this reason, it is also necessary to keep the protective hedge well- trimmed so that, while helping others, our mystical vineyard is not trampled under foot and its produce destroyed. My beloved in Jesus Christ, it is time for us to submit the vineyard of our souls to cultivation, to toil willingly under the pressure of present trials. The love of Jesus, represented by the wine, will take away our lethargy, will provide against our dejection, and will give us strength and comfort for the journey to our dear home in heaven, where we shall rejoice triumphantly without end (St. Gaspar del Bufalo).

Cultivate your vineyard together with Jesus. To you the task of removing stones and pulling up brambles. To Jesus, that of sowing, planting, cultivating and watering. But even in your work, it is still He who acts. Because, without Christ, you could do nothing at all. (St. Pio of Pietrelcina)

Each time the owner sends a messenger to the vine-growers, this message sets in motion a crisis among them, which they resolve by ganging up against the messenger and expelling him…. The last messenger is the Son, expelled just like all the preceding messengers and finally murdered. This parable confirms my definition of the Crucifixion. Jesus’ death is one example among many others of the single victim mechanism. What makes the mimetic cycle of Jesus’ suffering unique is, not the violence, but the fact that the victim is the Son of God, which is certainly the main thing from the standpoint of our redemption. (René Girard).

Homily

Who do you think he had in mind? These characters we've been meeting these past few weeks in parables of the vineyard? The "last will be first" types? Those who work in the Lord's vineyard with rather unexpected outcomes? The stand-ins highlighted by their contrasting attitudes to Jesus and his version of the Reign of God? Today it's the wicked tenants.

Well, while we might draw from them a certain moral application to our lives, in fact their original context referred to Jesus' co-religionists from whom Luke tells us the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to a people that will produce its fruit. That — presumably — is us Gentiles — the other tenants to whom the vineyard has been leased. (Cf. G)

Now I'm glad these parables show up at the time of year when the Jewish people have been celebrating their High Holy Days followed by the week-long festival of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths which concluded on Friday. This weekend is Simchat Torah which marks the end of one cycle of public reading of the Torah and the beginning of another — much as we do on the First Sunday of Advent with a new lectionary cycle. The Torah scrolls are brought from the Ark and processed excitedly through the congregation to great jubilation — similar to a procession with the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle. It was on Simchat Torah that the October 7, 2003 attack by Hamas took place in Israel.

I mention all this because the New Testament can leave us with the impression — as in these parables — that the Elder Covenant has been abrogated in favor of another or worse that God has rejected the Chosen People in favor of the Church. For over 60 years now the Catholic Church has tried to dispel such ideas — and acknowledge its own complicity reinforcing such views both in its teaching and, shamefully, the ways such teaching has given warrant for its members to engage in persecution of the Jewish people.

The approval by Pope Leo of a Vatican document on the 16th of September called Journey of Hope is one more step in this journey. In recommitting the Church to the path of interreligous dialogue with the Jews in particular we read:

Bearing in mind this rich spiritual heritage shared by Jews and Christians, it is easy to understand that Jewish-Christian dialogue cannot be regarded as a secondary activity for Christians, aimed only at gaining a better understanding of Judaism, fostering diplomatic relations, or even simply cultivating friendship with the Jewish people. Rather, it is a matter of becoming fully aware of one’s own original identity. God’s covenant with the Jewish people is irrevocable, and this continually challenges the Church….this irrevocable covenant has theological significance. The more Christians come to know and love the Jewish roots of their own tradition, the better they understand themselves in the practice of faith, and the stronger their religious identity becomes…. we affirm that we cannot do without one another, this also implies that the religious life of contemporary Jews, and not only that linked to the Old Testament, is relevant to Christians.

So we have work of our own to do in this vineyard. And while it’s true the health and strength of our vine depends much on what others have done, and do, for us -- beginning with our Jewish roots — we are responsible for the kind of grape we yield. Its vintage, its body, its bouquet, its taste. God invites us to work on our own behalf in this vineyard others have helped plant and tend. We are, after all, like tenant farmers who know the property is not theirs, but nevertheless labor for our own good.

The vines have been grafted onto us, transplanted from another vineyard — the vineyard of the Lord of hosts (I) Isaiah sang of, so we might able to produce an a full-bodied vintage, and our wine the choicer. In other words, our lives should be filled with any and everything that will make our vine yield cultivated grapes not wild ones.

So it's always fair to ask with what nourishment, what light, what water, do we tend our vine? Ones that take away our hedge, break through our wall, leaving us prey to trampling, and an overgrowth of thorns and briers? Or ones that make our vineyard thrive, because it is well pruned and hoed (cf. I)? Are we waiting around idle all day, like those workers who began to work late in the day? Or like the boy who promised his father much, but delivered little. Or the tenants who spurned those who came for the Vinedresser’s share of the grapes? The vine is too precious for that, the plant too cherished. And its growing season too short. The autumn comes quickly, and then it withers.

Now I don’t much about grape-growing, and even less about wine-making, but I do know they involve a process that takes a lot of care. Missteps along the way, even slight ones, can get you sour grapes and vinegar in the end. Of course, some things are beyond the control of the best dressers and pressers. Upstate New York weather can do a job on grape quality from year to year. A spring frost last April alarmed Finger Lakes growers who will have a lower yield his fall as a consequence. But not for lack of cultivation.

And so with us. Despite the many variables over which we have little control, the crop we raise and the harvest we reap is to a large extent lies in our own hands. And the Owner of the vineyard will come looking for grapes at vintage time (G). And no matter how long or short a day we’ll have put in, no matter if we’ve worked willingly or not, or even rejected the owner's emissaries at times, the grapes will be pressed, our wine poured out, then mingled with the Fruit of the vine we drink in this Eucharist as we await day when Christ Jesus will drink it anew with us, in the kingdom of God, where he lives and reigns, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we may be a fruitful garden, producing a harvest rich of justice, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness

For all who have suffered rejection: that God will heal their wounds, fill them with hope and guide them into the acceptance of a community of faith.

For all who experience anxiety or live with fear: that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding may fill their minds and hearts.

For all who tend the fields and bring food to our tables: that God will strengthen them and protect them in their labors.

For all who are struggling financially: that God will calm their fears and guide them to new opportunities to support themselves and to use their gifts.

For all who are recovering from natural disasters: that God will give them the strength to face their challenges, speed the assistance that they need, and fill their hearts with peace.

For civility in public life: that public discourse may focus on ideas and programs, and that the election speeches and materials will respect the dignity of each person.

Yours, O God, is the vineyard and its harvest, yours the kingdom of justice and peace. You call your people to tend its growth. Bless the work entrusted to our hands, that we may offer you an abundance of just works, a rich harvest of peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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