OMELIE / Omelie EN

04 ott 2026

4 October 2026 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

4 October 2026 – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

1st reading: Is 5:1–7; Psalm 79; 2nd reading: Phil 4:6–9; Gospel: Mt 21:33–43

The parable that Jesus tells the chief priests and the elders is an expression of that love which knows how to employ cunning and prudence. He imitates the prophet Nathan, who was sent to convince King David of his grave sins of adultery and murder. How did he do it? He told a parable, and then asked for a judgement on the behaviour of the main character in the parable itself. In passing judgement, David condemned himself to death. So too with Jesus: he will ask for a judgement on the characters in his parable, and the leaders will condemn themselves.

Their sin is truly grave: they have witnessed the wonders that the prophets had announced would be performed by the Messiah. Anyone who sees those miracles—such as opening the eyes of the blind and causing the lame to leap for joy—cannot fail to recall those prophecies, and cannot fail to recognise the One who was sent to fulfil them: the Son of David, the Son of God! Despite the evidence, they refused to recognise him; indeed, they did everything in their power to prevent the simple folk from recognising him.

The parable is that of the vineyard, planted and carefully tended by the owner. Everyone knows what it means to speak of a vineyard: Isaiah had already begun a chapter of his book with these words: ‘My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill’, ‘he expected it to yield grapes; instead, it yielded sour grapes’. And he went on to make us understand that this vineyard was nothing other than a symbol of the people of Israel. Why does the vineyard produce sour grapes? The people had no leaders capable of instructing them in God’s law, and they set no example to help them obey the wise and liberating commandments of the God of love and mercy.

Jesus begins by saying: ‘Listen’. It is a word that recurs frequently in the Scriptures. God used to say to the people: ‘Listen to me’, or ‘If you had listened to me’, but now Jesus simply says ‘Listen’. In this way, he makes it clear that it is he who gives us the Word of the Father, who had said to the three disciples on the mountain: ‘Listen to him’. It is important to listen to Jesus. The vineyard, well tended, is entrusted to farmers to cultivate it. At harvest time, they will give the owner his due share. And yet… And yet those farmers, who had enjoyed the owner’s trust, kill the servants he sends to collect his share. And ‘finally’ he sends his only son, and they treat him in the same way, with reasoning worthy of wicked people: let us kill the heir.

The people to whom Jesus was telling this parable were deciding to eliminate him, so the allusion to their situation was clear. Just as Nathan did with David, so Jesus asks them to decide what those farmers deserve. And they, without the slightest doubt, declare them worthy of death and worthy of being removed from the vineyard itself, which must be handed over to others. They still do not realise that they have pronounced their own condemnation, since they do not admit their own sin.

The Lord invites them to consider another line of reasoning, aided by the psalm sung by the pilgrims who had accompanied him to the temple. That psalm, in the end, speaks of a building whose cornerstone had been rejected by those in charge of the construction, but which then, thanks to God’s intervention, became the chief stone, from which the whole building derives its strength and stability. The allusion to the building and the stones leads us to think of the Church, founded precisely upon him, Jesus, the cornerstone, condemned to death by those responsible for the good of the people. After his death, he will be taken by the hand by God and brought back to life by him—indeed, raised from the dead. And the Church will be entrusted to his apostles, who will guide and nourish her so that she may bear fruit—the fruit awaited and desired by the Father: to gather all people into a single people who live out the love they receive as a gift from both the Father and the Son. She will be the new people, also called the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven.

All those who make up this people will entrust themselves to the goodness and mercy of the Father, and therefore, as Saint Paul exhorts, they will not be distressed for any reason. They know they are in safe hands and continue to pray, confident that they are heard as beloved children. Their prayers are answered, for their first and most decisive prayer is the attitude of listening, accompanied by a strong desire to fulfil the Father’s will. And this answer is manifested thus: ‘The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ Jesus is precisely the one whom the Father sent to change the world, to transform it from a place of disobedience into a place of love, and thus of peace for all.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)