DAILY- HOMILY

October 8, 2017 - 27th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

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Is 5: 1 - 7 / Phil 4: 6- 9 / Mt 21: 33- 43

FROM THE FIRST READING:          Is 5: 1 - 4

     Let me sing for my beloved the love song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up, cleared the stones, and planted the choicest vines. He built there a watchtower and hewed out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes but it yielded only wild grapes.

     Now inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do that I have not done for my vineyard? Good grapes was the yield I expected, why did it yield only sour grapes?

GOSPEL READING:           Mt 21: 33 - 43

     Jesus said, "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a hole for the winepress, built a watchtower, leased the vineyard to tenants and then went to a distant country. When harvest time came, the landowner sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the harvest. But the tenants seized his servants, beat one, killed another and stoned another. Again the owner sent more servants, but they were treated in the same way.

     "Finally, he sent his son, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they thought, 'This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let us kill him and his inheritance will be ours.' So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

     "Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do with the tenants when he comes? They said to him, 'He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and lease the vineyard to other who will pay him in due time."'

     And Jesus replied, "Have you never read what the Scriptures say? The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone. This was the Lord's doing and we marvel at it. Therefore I say to you: the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you and given to a people who will yield a harvest."

REFLECTION

     "What more was there to do that I have not done for my vineyard?" was the lament of the vineyard owner in today's first reading. Despite all the efforts and care, his vineyard yielded only sour grapes.

     The same lament is heard from the landowner not because his vineyard had no good harvest but because the tenants not only refused to give him his rightful share of the harvest but even manhandled and killed his emissaries, including his son. "Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do with the tenants when he comes? They said to him, 'He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and lease the vineyard to other who will pay him in due time."'

     We can imagine God the Creator with the same lament when he looks at the world he has created. Despite all his love and generosity, so many have rejected him and his goodness. "What more could I have done?"

     God chose and cared for his people Israel. So many times they simply turned their backs on God. God sent us his only Begotten Son, incarnate of the Virgin Mary. He was rejected and crucified. "What more could I have done?"

     The same is true in our individual lives. How often has each one of us turned his/her back to God? How has each one of us appreciated and made use of the many gifts from God? God can ask of each one of us, "What more could I have done?" We are blessed with a God, a Father, who is ever patient and ever merciful and forgiving. He has done all he can to reach out to us, to save us, to love us.

     How have we responded? What have we done? What should we do? How can we better respond to a generous and forgiving God and Father?

WE PRAY FOR MTQ DAILY PRAYER INTENTIONS:

BIRTHDAY

     AIDA INOCENTES CAPISTRANO

IN MEMORIAM (†) 

     RUDY SIAZON (BIRTH ANNIVERSARY)

Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most. 

Have a good day!

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   |  The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the

   |  priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish

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