Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year

The parable of the wicked farmers in last Sunday's Gospel leads us from a lighter warning to a prophecy of ruin, and concludes another parable that contains many allegorical details. The image inevitably suggests Israel itself, which in Scripture is often referred to as the vineyard of God.

The stone well, the hollowed rock whence the juice of the pressed grapes passed through stone channels to a deeper rock-basin, as well as the stone tower, are analogies contained in many Old Testament writings. The details appear in the parable not with any allegorical significance, but with the purpose of establishing the identity of the vineyard by a literary reminiscence of Isaias.

The listeners of Our Lord's parable narrated today by Matthew were then in a position to grasp the meaning of what follows. In his absence, the owner, clearly God, commits the vineyard to farmers accountable to himself. And it is these farmers who are at the centre of the story which Jesus narrates today in the form of a parable, one of his preferred ways of communicating his teachings.

It would appear that the vineyard, through the negligence of the workers, has yielded nothing. In any case, to thwart the master, they maltreat his servants who were sent to ask for the produce. But the master has superhuman patience. He sends even more servants, but to no better effect.

The climax of gentleness is to send his own son to finally persuade them. "They will surely respect him," he says. The actual event, however, is to turn this hope into irony: the sight of the son only stimulates their hate and aggravates their wicked plans. His existence threatened their possession, just as Our Lord's mission threatened the position of the Jewish leaders. The logical conclusion in their minds, therefore, could not be anything but to kill him.

It is already obvious what the Master will do when the time of reckoning comes. Jesus invites his hearers to pronounce their own sentence. God will choose other, more honest, workers who will promptly render their produce.

It is Jesus himself, then, who uses this story as a background hinting at God's present plan of redemption. After sending His own Son, who was equally put to death, God proclaims His definitive plan. The one He sends would also be eventually put to death, but only to rise again and remain ever present.

In God's plan of salvation, then, Jesus is the new cornerstone holding together the two sides of the new building which is the Church, the 'keystone'; holding up together the arch linking humanity with God.

God's original plan was to bring about His new building in the historical context of His chosen people. As this eventually did not work out, God went on just the same with His plans by gathering a new people, those who would accept Him in their lives and at the same time continue a living body, Jesus' Mystical Body, which is the Church.

This new building will be established by him, and in it he would remain present till the end of time. "Acceptance" is the keyword here. If not acceptance by a people in general, or by this or that race in particular, Jesus as Saviour wishes to be accepted by each human being individually. Hence the question I am today asked to set to myself: "What place does God occupy in my personal life? Is He the keystone of my existence? Is He the cornerstone in my activity?"