The Vineyard Is Not Ours
There is something wonderfully satisfying about a garden, a workshop, a kitchen, or a piece of ground that has been cared for.
Someone has been there before us.
The stones have been cleared. The fence has been mended. The tools have been sharpened. The seed has been planted. Someone has done the quiet work that makes fruit possible.
In today’s Gospel, Christ tells of just such a place: a vineyard planted carefully by a landowner. He fences it, digs the winepress, builds the tower, and entrusts the whole thing to tenants.
Their great mistake is not that they fail to recognize the value of the vineyard.
They recognize it so well that they decide it belongs to them.
This Sunday morning, before we consider what we possess, let us remember what we have been given.
Opening Verse
Lord, open my lips.
And my mouth shall declare thy praise.
Invitatory
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for the earth and all its fruit are his.
Psalm 94 (95)
Come let us praise the Lord with joy:
let us joyfully sing to God our saviour.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great king above all gods.
For in his hand are all the ends of the earth:
and the heights of the mountains are his.
For the sea is his, and he made it:
and his hands formed the dry land.
Come let us adore and fall down:
and weep before the Lord that made us.
For he is the Lord our God:
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.
Today if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness:
where your fathers tempted me,
they proved me, and saw my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation,
and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways:
so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: Come, let us adore the Lord, for the earth and all its fruit are his.
Psalmody
Psalm 92 (93)
Antiphon 1: The Lord reigneth; his kingdom standeth firm for ever.
The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty:
the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself.
For he hath established the world
which shall not be moved.
Thy throne is prepared from of old:
thou art from everlasting.
The floods have lifted up, O Lord:
the floods have lifted up their voice.
The floods have lifted up their waves,
with the noise of many waters.
Wonderful are the surges of the sea:
wonderful is the Lord on high.
Thy testimonies are become exceedingly credible:
holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, unto length of days.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon 1: The Lord reigneth; his kingdom standeth firm for ever.
Canticle — Daniel 3:57–88, 56
Antiphon 2: All that the Lord hath made, bless the Lord and exalt him for ever.
All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord:
O ye heavens, bless the Lord.
O all ye waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord:
O all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord.
O ye sun and moon, bless the Lord:
O ye stars of heaven, bless the Lord.
O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord:
O all ye spirits of God, bless the Lord.
O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord:
O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord.
O ye dews and hoar frosts, bless the Lord:
O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord.
O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord:
O ye nights and days, bless the Lord.
O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord:
O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord.
O let the earth bless the Lord:
let it praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye mountains and hills, bless the Lord:
O all ye things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord.
O ye fountains, bless the Lord:
O ye seas and rivers, bless the Lord.
O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless the Lord:
O all ye fowls of the air, bless the Lord.
O all ye beasts and cattle, bless the Lord:
O ye sons of men, bless the Lord.
O let Israel bless the Lord:
let them praise and exalt him above all for ever.
O ye priests of the Lord, bless the Lord:
O ye servants of the Lord, bless the Lord.
O ye spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord:
O ye holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord.
O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, bless ye the Lord:
praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Let us bless the Father and the Son, with the Holy Ghost:
let us praise and exalt him above all for ever.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven:
and worthy of praise, and glorious for ever.
Antiphon 2: All that the Lord hath made, bless the Lord and exalt him for ever.
Psalm 148
Antiphon 3: Praise the Lord from the heavens; let all creation give glory to its Maker.
Praise ye the Lord from the heavens:
praise ye him in the high places.
Praise ye him, all his angels:
praise ye him, all his hosts.
Praise ye him, O sun and moon:
praise him, all ye stars and light.
Praise him, ye heavens of heavens:
and let all the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.
For he spoke, and they were made:
he commanded, and they were created.
He hath established them for ever, and for ages of ages:
he hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth,
ye dragons, and all ye deeps:
Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds
which fulfil his word:
Mountains and all hills,
fruitful trees and all cedars:
Beasts and all cattle:
serpents and feathered fowls:
Kings of the earth and all people:
princes and all judges of the earth:
Young men and maidens:
let the old with the younger praise the name of the Lord:
For his name alone is exalted.
The praise of him is above heaven and earth:
and he hath exalted the horn of his people.
A hymn to all his saints:
to the children of Israel, a people approaching to him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon 3: Praise the Lord from the heavens; let all creation give glory to its Maker.
Short Reading
Ezekiel 36:25–27
I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness: and I will cleanse you from all your idols.
And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.
Short Responsory
Lord, renew our hearts, that we may bear good fruit.
Lord, renew our hearts, that we may bear good fruit.
All that we possess has come from thy hand.
That we may bear good fruit.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Lord, renew our hearts, that we may bear good fruit.
Gospel of the Day
Matthew 21:33–43
At that time, Jesus said:
Hear ye another parable.
There was a man an householder, who planted a vineyard, and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen; and went into a strange country.
And when the time of the fruits drew nigh, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof.
And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.
Again he sent other servants more than the former; and they did to them in like manner.
And last of all he sent to them his son, saying: They will reverence my son.
But the husbandmen seeing the son, said among themselves: This is the heir: come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance.
And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him.
When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall come, what will he do to those husbandmen?
They say to him: He will bring those evil men to an evil end; and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen, that shall render him the fruit in due season.
Jesus saith to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone which the builders rejected,
the same is become the head of the corner?
By the Lord this has been done;
and it is wonderful in our eyes.
Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof.
Benedictus
Antiphon: The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone; by the Lord this has been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68–79
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people:
And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David his servant:
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To perform mercy to our fathers,
and to remember his holy testament,
The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father,
that he would grant to us,
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him,
all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest:
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:
To give knowledge of salvation to his people,
unto the remission of their sins:
Through the bowels of the mercy of our God,
in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:
To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death:
to direct our feet into the way of peace.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Antiphon: The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone; by the Lord this has been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.
Intercessions
God our Father has entrusted his creation to our care and has called us to bear fruit for his kingdom. With confidence we pray:
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For thy Church throughout the world: keep her faithful to Christ, the cornerstone, and make her a fruitful vineyard of holiness, mercy, truth, and charity.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For the Holy Father, our bishops, priests, deacons, religious, missionaries, and all who labor in the Gospel: strengthen them when the harvest seems distant and their work unseen.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For rulers and all entrusted with authority: remind them that power is a stewardship and not a possession, and turn their hearts toward justice and peace.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For those beginning another week of work, study, caregiving, or service: help us see our occupations not merely as burdens or possessions, but as fields in which we may serve thee and our neighbor.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For our homes and families: teach us to receive one another as gifts rather than possessions, and give us patience with those whose burdens we do not fully understand.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For farmers, gardeners, laborers, craftsmen, engineers, teachers, merchants, homemakers, and all whose work brings forth fruit for others: bless the work of their hands.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For the poor, the lonely, the sick, the anxious, and those who fear what this new week may bring: place beside them faithful friends, and grant them hope.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For those who have died: receive them into the inheritance prepared for thy children, where no labor is lost and every good seed reaches its harvest.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
For ourselves: deliver us from the illusion that our lives belong entirely to us. Teach us gratitude for every hour, every talent, every friendship, and every opportunity entrusted to our keeping.
Lord, make us faithful in thy vineyard.
Our Father
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Concluding Prayer
Almighty Father, thou hast planted us in a world we did not make and surrounded us with gifts we could never earn. Keep us from mistaking stewardship for ownership. Make our hearts grateful, our hands generous, and our lives fruitful, that when the Master of the vineyard comes seeking his harvest, he may find in us the fruits of faith, hope, charity, justice, mercy, and peace.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Blessing
May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil,
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.
The Paradox of the Day
We possess God’s gifts most completely when we stop pretending they belong to us.
Chesterton for the Morning
“Charity means pardoning what is unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all. Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. And faith means believing the incredible, or it is no virtue at all.”
— G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, “Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson”
A Chestertonian Meditation
The Vineyard Is Not Ours
There is a peculiar temptation that comes with fixing something.
A man may borrow a lawn mower from his neighbor and discover that it runs badly. He cleans the carburetor, sharpens the blade, changes the oil, tightens three loose bolts, and finally gets the thing humming like a respectable machine again.
At that moment a dangerous theological idea may enter his head:
This really ought to be mine.
It is one of the comic facts of human nature that improving another man’s property can produce a surprisingly rapid theory of property rights.
Something similar happens in today’s Gospel, except that nobody is laughing.
The tenants have been given an extraordinary vineyard.
The owner has planted it. He has put a hedge around it. He has dug the winepress. He has built the tower.
Then he goes away and entrusts it to them.
That last fact is important.
The owner trusts them.
They are not slaves chained to the vineyard. They are given genuine responsibility. They must prune vines, repair fences, watch the weather, decide when to harvest, and solve a hundred ordinary problems.
In time they become very good at living in the vineyard.
And then comes the catastrophe.
They forget the difference between being entrusted with something and owning it.
This is not merely a parable about some particularly wicked farmers long ago. It is one of the great recurring temptations of ordinary life.
We wake each morning in a vineyard.
The sun rises without our permission.
Our heart has been beating all night without any conscious instruction from us.
There may be coffee in the kitchen, a dog waiting at the door, a spouse sleeping beside us, children or grandchildren scattered across the country, work waiting on a desk, leaves beginning to turn on trees we did not invent.
We step into a world already built.
Someone else dug the winepress.
Someone else built the tower.
And because we spend so much time maintaining the vineyard, we gradually imagine that we made it.
We speak quite naturally of my house, my career, my money, my talents, my time.
There is nothing wrong with that grammar. Human beings need nouns and possessive pronouns.
The trouble begins when grammar becomes theology.
For the Christian, possession is never absolute.
Everything we possess is also something entrusted to us.
Our abilities are entrusted to us.
Our money is entrusted to us.
Our authority is entrusted to us.
Our children are entrusted to us.
Our work is entrusted to us.
Even our time is entrusted to us.
Especially our time.
No man has ever manufactured a Tuesday.
Yet we speak confidently of what we intend to do with our Tuesday.
Christ does not condemn the tenants because they cultivated the vineyard. That was precisely what they were supposed to do.
He condemns them because when the owner asks for the fruit, they refuse to acknowledge him.
Then something darker happens.
The owner sends his son.
“They will reverence my son.”
It may be one of the saddest sentences in the Gospel.
The tenants see the son and understand immediately who he is.
“This is the heir.”
Their problem is not ignorance.
It is recognition.
They know the son precisely well enough to understand that his existence disproves their claim of ownership.
So they throw him outside the vineyard and kill him.
Here the parable suddenly opens onto Calvary.
Christ himself is the Son cast outside.
The vineyard refuses the One through whom the vineyard was made.
Creation murders its Creator.
And yet this apparent catastrophe becomes the cornerstone.
“The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.”
Christianity is filled with these impossible reversals.
The rejected stone becomes the foundation.
The executed heir becomes the King.
The tomb becomes the doorway.
And the man who admits that nothing ultimately belongs to him suddenly discovers that everything has been given to him.
Chesterton understood this strange arithmetic of Christianity.
The modern instinct says that freedom means possessing things without obligation.
Christian freedom says almost the opposite.
A gift becomes glorious precisely because it came from someone.
A child given a pocketknife by his father possesses more than a knife. He possesses a story.
A woman wearing her mother’s old ring possesses more than metal.
A man sitting at a battered workbench inherited from his grandfather possesses more than furniture.
The relationship enlarges the object.
Gratitude does not diminish possession.
It deepens it.
That is why the tenants’ rebellion is ultimately so foolish.
They kill the heir because they want the vineyard.
But the vineyard without the owner is precisely what they cannot keep.
We commit smaller versions of the same foolishness whenever gratitude begins to feel like an intrusion.
We may think our talents are ours because we practiced them.
Certainly we practiced them.
But who gave us the hands?
We may think our business is ours because we built it.
Certainly we worked.
But who gave us the years in which to work, the people who taught us, the customers who trusted us, the health that allowed us to rise in the morning?
None of this makes human effort meaningless.
It makes human effort magnificent.
The Christian is not a tenant who shrugs and says, “None of this is mine, so none of it matters.”
He is the tenant who says, “None of this began with me, therefore I must care for it.”
Stewardship is not indifference.
It is responsibility illuminated by gratitude.
And this is perhaps where today’s Gospel meets Sunday morning most directly.
A Sunday interrupts our claim of ownership over time.
Six days we rush about speaking of our schedules, our deadlines, our plans.
Then Sunday arrives like the servant from the landowner.
It reminds us:
The vineyard has an Owner.
The week has an Author.
The harvest has a purpose.
And we have been given one day in which simply to remember.
Today happens also to be October 4, the date ordinarily associated with St. Francis of Assisi. His feast yields this year to the greater celebration of Sunday, yet perhaps his shadow is not entirely unwelcome.
Few Christians understood more vividly that creation is not property in the crude sense but gift.
Brother Sun.
Sister Moon.
Water.
Fire.
Birds.
Earth.
Not because Francis thought nature was divine, but precisely because he knew it was created.
A thing becomes a brother only when both of you have a Father.
And that brings us back to the vineyard.
The grapes are not ours.
The tower is not ours.
The hedge is not ours.
Even the strength with which we work among the vines is not entirely ours.
But this is not bad news.
It is wonderfully good news.
For if the vineyard depended entirely upon us, we would have every reason to be terrified.
Instead, we are workers in a vineyard planted before we arrived and destined to continue after we leave.
Our task is smaller and nobler.
Tend what has been entrusted to you.
Repair the fence in front of you.
Care for the person beside you.
Do the work that belongs to this day.
Receive the harvest gratefully.
Return its fruits generously.
And when tomorrow morning arrives, do not greet it merely as another twenty-four hours that belong to you.
Open the door.
Look at the light.
And recognize the vineyard.
Lord, give us grateful eyes for what thou hast entrusted to us, faithful hands for today’s work, and generous hearts when thou askest for the fruit.
Chesterton Radio