Sunday Gospel
Prepare for Sunday in prayer.
Matthew 21:33–43
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
About this artwork
The Sermon on the Mount. A general meditation on listening to Christ’s teaching. This painting depicts the Sermon on the Mount, not necessarily the event in today’s reading.
Jesus describes a vineyard entrusted to tenants who refuse its owner and reject his son. Listen with a heart ready to receive Christ and bear the fruit of his love.
Gospel
Matthew 21:33–43
“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
They told him, “He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I tell you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit.”
Official readingsReceive the Son and bear good fruit
The vineyard begins as a gift. Its owner has planted, protected, and prepared it before asking the tenants for fruit. We also receive much that we did not create: life, faith, other people’s care, and opportunities to serve. Jesus invites us to receive these gifts with gratitude rather than treating them as possessions over which God has no claim.
The tenants try to secure the inheritance by rejecting the son. Their violence exposes how far a desire for control can lead us. This parable is not permission to condemn the Jewish people or any community. It challenges every disciple to examine the ways we resist God’s messengers and refuse his Son. Christ, the rejected stone, becomes the cornerstone on which a new life can be built.
Before Mass, name one part of your life that you have held tightly. Ask what faithful care would look like there. Perhaps the fruit God invites today is patience with a family member, honesty at work, or generosity toward someone overlooked. We do not earn his love by producing enough. We respond to the love already given by letting it become visible.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, be the cornerstone of my life. Help me receive your gifts with gratitude, listen when you call, and care faithfully for those entrusted to me. Let your love bear good fruit in me. Amen.
What good fruit can I offer God through one concrete act of love this week?