Gospel Reflection on Matthew 21:33-43
October 4, 2026
"Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.' And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons."
Jesus said to them,
"Have you never read in the scriptures:
'The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner;
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.
In his book, The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky tells the story of two brothers, Zosima and Marko. Zosima at one point describes his brother Marko's last days.
Marko, who previously had cared little for God or religion, had a surprising change of heart. He began asking for both God's forgiveness and that of others. Then he did something no one could have expected. He asked the birds to forgive him. Here are his words: "Birds of God, joyful birds, you too must forgive me, because I have also sinned before you."
Zosima says, 'none of us could understand it then, but he was weeping with joy.'
"Yes, he said, there was so much of God's glory around me, birds, trees, meadows, sky, and I alone lived in shame. I alone dishonored everything and did not notice the beauty of it all." When Marko's mother told him he was taking too many sins upon himself, he responded, "Dear mother, I am weeping from gladness, not from grief. I want to be guilty before them, only I can't explain it to you, for I do not know even how to love them." So as someone recalls, "My brother asked the birds to forgive him, and that sounds senseless, but it is right. For all is like an ocean, all is flowing and blending. A touch in one place sets up movement at the other end of the earth.
Marko's prayer is a reminder that all creation is bound together, meaning human actions affect everything else in the universe. Marko's sin lays in the fact that he had passed by the bird, he'd failed to pay attention. Attention is a moral act. Our lack of attention to our neighbor, to creation, says to them, 'your existence makes no claim on me.'
Today we hear the Master say these words, "They will pay attention to my Son." The workers have ignored the claim that other messengers have attempted to make on the vineyard. But surely they will pay attention to the Son. When we hear the story, we convince ourselves that of course we'll pay attention to God and to those who really need us and to the important things.
But what Marko had discovered is that attention is whole cloth. Either we are someone who pays attention or we are not. Attention is not something we can turn on and off. Learning to be attentive to what is in front of us in the present moment is fundamental. Our daily temptation is to choose what matters, as if we can decide what is worth paying attention to and what is not. God is asking us to pay attention in many ways, many times. He knocks on our door all the time by means of those around us, asking us to bear fruit with neighbor, relative, friend, creation.
God has planted so much in the lives of all of us. We've been welcomed by Him, forgiven, and loved. And all of this is willed by God so we might learn to pay attention. And the sign we're paying attention is we lay aside our own needs and act with tenderness. When someone does not find this in us, they have a right to complain. These are the fruits that any human being is expected to bear. And in addition, these are the gifts of the Master's Vineyard.
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