Gospel Lectio Divina for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 8, 2023

By David Kilby

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

READ

Mt 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."

MEDITATE

When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.

Autumn is my favorite season for many reasons, but perhaps mostly because it is the time of harvest. All of the hard work of the farmers pays off, their trucks fill up with pumpkins, their orchards are ready for apple picking, and their corn stalks are taller than you and I. In Jesus’ time, agrarian culture was a much larger part of everyday life. It was common for a common man to own livestock. Many people worked in the fields, or at least did at one point in their lives. To use parables that reflected agrarian life was to relate to the people in a very familiar way. 

There is another layer of this parable that is beyond the familiar, though. The classic civilizations believed that all of history was happening in cycles like the seasons of a year. They believed the earth had been through several springs, summers, autumns, and winters in an epochal sense, not just the annual sense. Natural disasters have destroyed the earth several times over, but life came back stronger each time. When Jesus tells a parable, he is sharing eternal, colossal ideas through small, human terms. He is giving us a glimpse of heaven through a dumbed-down lens. The truth he wants to show us is so beyond us, there is no other way for us to understand it. 

When Jesus talks about “vintage time”, he is talking about his arrival in history. Civilization was ripe for his incarnation. Rome was a powerful, thriving civilization. Its road system was a marvel, unlike any the world had ever seen. This made evangelization easier for him and his disciples, as they could move from town to town spreading the Gospel more effectively. Also, Greek and Roman philosophers had arrived at the conclusion that God was necessary and had to exist. There was no other way to explain man’s desire for virtue and ideals like justice, love, and beauty. No matter how much the scholars studied and no matter how much the greatest minds pondered the mysteries of existence, there was always some mystical truth that was beyond their understanding. This prompted St. Paul to preach about the “Unknown God” to the Gentiles. 

The time was ripe, and yet the leaders of God’s own people—the high priests and elders—still did not take advantage of their position in history. They didn’t seize the opportunity to spread the good news of God’s kingdom. The Gentiles were on the verge of discovering God through their own reason, and yet the leaders of God’s people—the ones to whom God was revealed—still didn’t see what God was doing. God became man to tell the world that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the one that all the great thinkers were seeking, in the flesh. Jesus wanted the high priests and elders to collect this harvest, to bring these truth seekers to him. But they did not. Instead, they took advantage of the prophets and God’s very son. 

“Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.”

What could have led these tenants to resort to such extreme measures? We can look at this verse and parable in the historic sense, and see that the son is Jesus. But there is a moral sense here too. It is that when we fall into sin, one bad act leads to another. Like a gambler who thinks his next bet will get him out of debt, the one who lives a life of sin keeps thinking that eventually, his immoral ways will get him out of the mess that the sins got him into in the first place. It is an illogical path to take, but he sees no other way out because the sins have a grip on him. So we may despise these tenants, and perhaps there is wisdom in that. But I think it is better to have pity on them. They went down a path where one thing led to another, and they kept committing evil deeds probably hoping that eventually the next one will get them out of their predicament. When the devil has a hold on us, we rationalize the irrational. The devil had a hold on these tenants. There is no other way to explain their behavior.  

The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

Jesus is concerned about his people producing fruit. He seems to emphasize this theme throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, God directs his people several times to “be fruitful and multiply”. The fruit we bear is not just our offspring, but our virtue, our productive labor, and our spiritual children. God is an investor. He seeks a return on the investment he made in creating us. Soft theology lowers the bar and makes it seem like God will be satisfied with us no matter what we do, but his love is a tough love that renders consequences to those who do not follow his word. The chief priests and elders did not follow his word. They did not produce fruit. In fact, they persecuted the prophets and killed God’s son. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven will be taken from them.

We all have our chances to produce fruit. We all have our tasks. It is difficult to find God’s will, but as long as we do not abandon the struggle God sustains us. He gives us just enough to endure the struggle as he creates something amazing and beautiful out of each life given to him. 

PRAY

Dear Lord,

The harvest is still ripe. People are still desperately searching for you, whether they know it or not. Help me to be a faithful servant and bring these seekers to you, to show them what they are looking for, to show them it’s found through having life in you. We are all beggars, and I have simply been blessed to know where the food is. Your world is still beautiful. It’s still a reflection of your kingdom. There are still examples of your love everywhere. Creation itself is a diffusion of your love. Our relationships can be diffusions of your love. There is always hope. Please help me to see it. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

LISTEN

When we listen closely to God’s word, we find deeper meaning. When we ignore God’s word, our life becomes a series of scattered instances where we chase lesser things. Our base desires for money, pleasure, and approval take over. When we listen to God’s word though, he shows us a higher purpose. He shows us how we are part of a great story that will determine the outcome of everything he created. Will we listen to him or betray him, seeking smaller ambitions? The tenants in the vineyard may not have been so malicious at first. They may have just started out seeking more money instead of God. But when we lose sight of God, we lose sight of virtue. Then there is no limit to the means we will use to obtain what we think we need. 

Kilby is a freelance writer from New Jersey and managing editor of Catholic World Report. He received his undergrad degree in humanities and Catholic culture from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. In addition to working with the Knights of the Holy Eucharist (knights.org), he has served as a journalist for Princeton Packet Publications, and the Trenton Monitor, the magazine for the Diocese of Trenton. Some of his published work can also be found in St. Anthony Messenger, Catholic Herald (UK), and Catholic World Report. For the latter he is managing editor. Find more of his writing at ramblingspirit.com