Commentary: 27 Sun. OT A

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, A



Isaiah 5: 1-7

Psalm 80

Philippians 4: 6-9

Matthew 21: 33-43



The readings today both utilize a parable about a vineyard. The First Reading is actually “my friend’s song concerning his vineyard.” It is at the end that the prophet delivers the jab about the vineyard being Israel, and its inhabitants as unfaithful. The Responsorial Psalm echoes this concept of the vineyard’s “walls broken down, so that every passer-by picks its fruit;” the refrain of the psalm is taken from the First Reading, “The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.” The Gospel has Jesus telling the chief priests and the elders a parable about a vineyard, its owner, and its tenants. At the end of it, he quotes Ps. 118 and then sums up by saying, “For this reason, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will yield a rich harvest.” The christological interpretation of this parable happened already in the Gospel itself (notice that the last to be sent was “the son,” and Him the tenants killed).



St. Basil the Great says: "Throughout the Scriptures, the Lord continually likens human souls to vines. He says, for instance: "My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside;" and again, "I planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it." Clearly it is human souls that he calls his vineyard, and the hedge he has put around them is the security of his commandments and the protection of the angles, for "the angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him." (Homilies on the Hexaemeron, 5: SC 27, 304-307)



The in-course reading from Philippians continues this week. The first paragraph of the Second Reading has a long association with the Third Sunday of Advent. Here, though, we are given it as an exhortation to trust in God, who provides our needs and gives us peace. The pericope concludes with a list of things one ought to think of: things honest, pure, admirable, decent, etc. Using these in connection with living a life modeled on Christ (as Paul’s was when he was living there) will cause “the God of peace to be with you.”



A text based on the First Reading (Isaiah 5:1-7) is "Amid the World's Bleak Wilderness," by the hymnwriter Jaroslav Vajda, has been set by composer Richard Hillert and recorded by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter's in the Loop on the cd "Praise to the Lord: Great Hymns of the Church." The text of the Second Reading (Philippians 4: 6-9) is set by an anonymous composer in the English renaissance motet, "Rejoice in the Lord Alway," which was recorded by the Schola on the cd "Music for Advent II." Finally, a the hymn that I wrote for this Sunday is recorded on "Music for the Year of Matthew." All of these cds are published by The Liturgical Press (www.litpress.org).