[Catholic Caucus] The Sacred Page: Are We a Fruitful Vineyard? Readings for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Dr. John BergsmaThe past several Sundays we have been reading from the vineyard parables of Jesus in Matthew, and this Sunday we reach a climactic point in the hostility between the leaders of the people (chief priests and elders) and Jesus. The Readings for this Lord’s Day are skillfully chosen to complement the Gospel reading. Most commentators agree that the vine parables of the Old Testament found in Isaiah 5 and Psalm 80 are the textual background for Jesus’ own vineyard parable in Matthew 21:33-43. The First Reading gives us Isaiah 5:1-7, the key prophetic parable that identifies the...