27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rejecting God’s Messengers Closes the Heart to Grace: Embracing Christ Makes Us Fruitful in His Kingdom 
(Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mathew 21:33-43, 04 October 2026) 

In today’s Gospel passage (Mathew 21:33-43) Jesus, foreseeing his passion and death, tells the parable of the murderous vintners, to admonish the chief priests and elders of the people who are about to take the wrong path. Indeed, they have bad intentions towards him and are seeking a way to eliminate him. (Pope Francis, Angelus, 2020) 

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

The Vineyard of God: A Gift Entrusted to Our Care-In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents the parable of the murderous tenants, a powerful account of God’s enduring love, humanity’s refusal to respond to grace, and the responsibility entrusted to those who have received His Kingdom. 

Jesus speaks of a landowner who carefully prepares a vineyard, surrounds it with a hedge, builds a winepress and a tower, and leases it to tenants before departing. When the harvest approaches, he sends his servants to collect the produce. Yet the tenants reject the messengers, mistreat them, and even kill some of them. Finally, the landowner sends his own son, hoping that they will respect him. Instead, they seize him, throw him out of the vineyard, and kill him. 

The vineyard represents the people of God, but it also invites us to reflect upon our own lives, our families, and our parish community. Everything we possess is ultimately a gift entrusted to us by God. Our life, faith, talents, relationships, church buildings, ministries, and opportunities for service are not possessions to be guarded selfishly; they are gifts to be cultivated and shared for the glory of God and the good of others. 

As members of Epiphany of the Lord Parish, we are entrusted with a spiritual vineyard that has been cultivated through the sacrifices, prayers, generosity, and faithfulness of generations of parishioners. The churches of St. Stephen of Hungary and St. Thomas Aquinas, together with the wider parish family, represent not merely buildings and institutions, but a living heritage of faith and Christian communion. 

Rejecting the Messengers: The Tragedy of a Closed Heart-The central tragedy of the parable lies in the tenants’ refusal to acknowledge the authority of the landowner. Their rejection of the servants is not merely an act of hostility against individual messengers; it is ultimately a rejection of the one who sent them. Their desire to possess the vineyard for themselves gradually blinds them to the truth that they are only its stewards. This is the spiritual danger of every human heart: when self-interest becomes greater than obedience to God, we begin to resist the very grace that seeks to transform us. We may listen to the Word of God without allowing it to question our attitudes. We may participate in religious activities while refusing to forgive, reconcile, or change. We may desire the blessings of faith without accepting the responsibilities that faith places upon us. 

Within our parish community, the Gospel invites us to examine whether we genuinely welcome one another as God’s messengers. Do we listen patiently to those whose experiences differ from ours? Do we make room for younger generations, welcome new parishioners, and recognize the gifts of those who have been entrusted with different responsibilities? Can we receive a sincere concern or a constructive suggestion without allowing personal differences to become divisions? A parish becomes spiritually impoverished when people feel unheard, when the vulnerable are overlooked, or when personal preferences become more important than the common good. The elderly, the sick, those experiencing loneliness, families facing hardship, and parishioners who have gradually become distant from church life must never feel that they have been forgotten in God’s vineyard. 

The Beloved Son: Christ, the Cornerstone of Our Communion-The parable reaches its climax when the landowner sends his beloved son. This is the decisive moment in salvation history. The servants recall the prophets whom God sent to call His people to fidelity, while the son represents Jesus Christ Himself, the beloved Son sent by the Father. 

The tenants’ rejection of the son anticipates the rejection, suffering, and death of Jesus outside Jerusalem. Yet what appears to be a victory of human violence becomes, through God’s saving power, the foundation of a new creation. Jesus declares: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Matthew 21:42). 

For Epiphany of the Lord Parish, this means that our different communities, generations, ministries, and tradi-tions must find their unity in the person of Jesus Christ. Our parish cannot be sustained by nostalgia for the past alone, nor can its future be secured merely through administrative arrangements or the preservation of existing structures. We need a renewed encounter with Christ, who calls every generation to participate in His mission. 

The Eucharist is the heart of this communion. At every Mass, the rejected and crucified Son becomes our food, gathering us around His table and teaching us to become what we receive: one body in Christ. The same Lord whom we adore on the altar calls us to recognize His presence in the person who sits beside us, the stranger who enters our church, and the suffering neighbor who awaits our assistance. 

Bearing Fruit: From Religious Practice to Living Discipleship-Jesus concludes the parable by declaring that the Kingdom of God will be given to a people who produce its fruits (Matthew 21:43). This statement reminds us that belonging to God’s vineyard carries a responsibility. Faith is not a privilege to be possessed but a gift to be lived. Grace is freely given, yet it calls for a response expressed through concrete acts of love and obedi-ence. The fruits of the Kingdom are not measured merely by numbers, financial resources, or the outward appearance of religious activity. They are revealed in the transformation of human hearts and relationships. A fruitful parish is one where forgiveness becomes possible, where the lonely find companionship, where the elderly are treated with dignity, where the sick receive pastoral care, and where those who have drifted away discover that the door of the Church remains open. 

Our parish mission begins with simple but meaningful gestures: greeting one another warmly, praying togeth-er before Mass, participating attentively in the Eucharist, supporting parish ministries, reaching out to absent parishioners, and offering our time and talents generously. Such actions may seem small, but they become signs of God’s Kingdom when they are rooted in genuine Christian love. 

The vineyard also calls us to share responsibility for the future of our parish. Every baptized person has a place in the mission of the Church. Children and young people need opportunities to serve and grow in faith; families need encouragement; the elderly have wisdom to share; and every parishioner has gifts that can strengthen our communion. No one should consider himself or herself merely a spectator in God’s vineyard. 

Conclusion: The Vineyard Belongs to God-As we celebrate this Sunday, let us ask ourselves: What fruit is the Lord expecting from me? What attitude must I surrender? Whom have I neglected? Which opportunity for reconciliation or service have I postponed? The answer begins not with the demand that others change, but with our willingness to allow Christ to transform us. 

May Epiphany of the Lord Parish become a vineyard rich in the fruits of faith, hope, and charity—a community in which no one is forgotten, no sincere voice is dismissed, and no opportunity to love is wasted. 

Fraternally, 
Fr. John Peter Lazaar SAC, Pastor