TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

18 OCTOBER 2026

 

          Our Scripture readings today speak of vocation.  The word “vocation” comes from the Latin word, vocare, which means “to call.”  We Catholics speak of a vocation through the lens of a state in life.  Most of you have been called to live as married couples.  Others are called to live as members of a religious order, both male and female.  I have been called to the priesthood.

            However, our readings speak much more broadly of “vocation.”  They reflect the Second Vatican Council’s understanding of vocation as a “universal call to holiness.”  God chooses to call everyone to some kind of holiness.  The prophet Isaiah says that God called the Persian king Cyrus to free the Chosen People from their exile in Babylon.  Cyrus was a pagan and had no idea who the God of Israel was.  But that does not stop God from naming him as his anointed, as his Messiah or savior.  In calling Cyrus, God grasped him by the hand, even though Cyrus did not know him.  Cyrus responded to God’s call in defeating the Babylonians and allowing God’s Chosen People to return to Jerusalem and their Promised Land.  Isaiah makes it clear that even through Cyrus does not believe in God, there is only one God, and there is no other.

            In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees and Herodians flatter Jesus by calling him a teacher who is a truthful man.  However, they are not interested in knowing any truth.  These two groups agree on nothing.  The Pharisees oppose Roman rule and regard it as an unjust burden on God’s Chosen People.  The Herodians cooperate with the Roman rule and prosper because of it.  To trap him, they ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not.  If Jesus answers that it is not lawful, the Herodians will call him a rebel and report him to the authorities, as they had done previously to a Galilean teacher and had him executed.  If Jesus answers that it is lawful, then the Pharisees will accuse him of being in league with Rome and supporting an unfair tax that puts unjust burdens on the people.  Instead of falling into their trap, he asks to see a coin.  He asks them whose image is on the coin.  They reply, “Caesar’s.”  We are familiar with the first part of his answer, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”  It reminds us that we need to pay our taxes every April 15 as faithful American Catholics. 

            But we often forget the second part of his answer, “…and to God what belongs to God.”  Everything belongs to God, including Caesar himself, who was made in the image and likeness of God, as are all of us.  That is the message sent by Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy to the church of Thessalonica.  And through this living Word of God, it is the message they send to us.  Like them, we live out our universal call to holiness when we work as a labor of love for others.  Some of us have been called to work as married couples.  Others have been called to work as religious men or women.  Some of us have been called to work as priests. No matter what our individual states in life may be, we share a team approach to the universal call to holiness by working together to make the presence of God more visible in a divided and hateful world.

            As Paul reminds the Thessalonians, he reminds us that we endure with hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, especially when we experience difficulties and pain and challenges in our individual vocations.  Last week, we priests participated in a workshop focused on how we can face the difficult situations that we encounter in our particular vocation.  As with married couples, our ultimate hope rests in our faith that the Lord is present in the grace we have received from our Sacramental commitment.

            As we live out our common call to universal holiness, Saint Paul reminds us of our conviction in our faith and beliefs.  In each of our vocations, the Lord has clearly manifested himself to us.  We remember those times and continue to make the Lord’s presence more visible.

 

TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

11 OCTOBER 2026

 

          Those who gave up everything to become disciples of Jesus of Nazareth certainly would have known the prophecy of Isaiah (our first reading).  Convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they expected he would fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah in a glorious victory on a famous mountain, like Mount Sinai, or the Mount of the Transfiguration, or in the beautiful temple on Mount Zion.  Their hopes would have been shattered when he was executed on a horribly dark day on Mount Calvary outside the city walls.  Instead of being clothed in glory and surrounded by faithful witnesses, he died a horrible death stripped of everything, surrounded by thieves, and buried in a borrowed tomb.

            After his resurrection, they began to understand how Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy in unexpected ways.  He had destroyed the veil that veils all peoples.  In other words, he had removed the need for a veil to be worn at funerals.  He had destroyed death forever by entering death himself.  Grateful for his complete gift of self, they obeyed his command to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth.  God had wiped away their tears and had provided them with a feast of rich food and pure choice wine in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.  Nourished by this Sacrament and guided by the Holy Spirit, they had the courage to give themselves in loving sacrifice to all who would open themselves to this message of salvation.

            We share this same understanding of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.  In today’s parable, Jesus builds on that understanding.  The king in the parable is God, the Father.  His son, Jesus Christ, is the faithful bridegroom who as given himself totally to us as his bride.  God continues to invite everyone to the great wedding feast at the end of time.  Through the missionary activity of the Church, God does not force anyone to accept the invitation.  Too many people are so tied up with the ordinary affairs of life that they make excuses for not responding.  Others brutally murder the Lord’s servants, as committed Christians have been martyred over the centuries.  The Father continues to invite everyone, bad and good alike

            The Father also invites us to repent and to make sure that we clothe ourselves with righteous deeds.  That is what happens to the man who is not dressed in a wedding garment.  There is no dress code in the kingdom of God.  But the Lord expects us to wear our baptismal garments.  When we were baptized, we were clothed with a white garment.  That white garment stands for our efforts to embrace the Mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and make mystery more completely a central part of our daily lives, turning away from sin and growing more fully in the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. 

            The king refers to the man without a wedding garment as “my friend.”  There is only one other time in the Gospel of Saint Matthew that Jesus refers to someone as “friend.”  That is when he calls Judas Iscariot his friend before he betrays him with a kiss.  He calls each one of them a “friend,” because he gives them one last chance to repent and change their minds.  Both refuse, and both are cast outside in the darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

            After his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Saint Paul spent his life proclaiming the Good News to Gentiles throughout the Mediterranean world.  He knew times of abundance and times of being well fed.  He also knew times of humble circumstances and hunger.  Fed by the Eucharist, he never lost sight of the wedding banquet at the end of his life.  He encourages us to imitate his example and continue to turn more completely to the love of Christ Jesus, trusting that God will supply whatever we need.  In turning more completely to Jesus Christ, we are preparing ourselves to participate at the Wedding Feast at the end of time.

 

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

4 OCTOBER 2026

 

          The prophet Isaiah uses a vineyard to describe the care of God in taking his people from slavery in Egypt and transplanting them in the Promised Land.  Vineyards played a critical role in the life of the people of ancient Israel.  They produced the grapes that were made into wine, the important drink that nourished people and provided work for laborers.  The vineyard became an image for what God had done.  God took his cherished vine from Egypt and transplanted it in the Promised Land.  With great care, God placed his people on a fertile hillside like a landowner would plant a vineyard.  God spaded the hillside, cleared it of stones, built a watchtower, and hewed out a wine press.  But Isaiah laments that instead of finding good grapes, God found wild grapes.  His people had forgotten the care he had taken into settling them in the Promised Land. They chased after false gods and abandoned the Covenant.  As a result, their enemies defeated them and trampled down the vineyard God had planted.

            Jesus uses that same image in his parable directed at the chief priests and elders of the people.  His Father is the landowner.  They are the tenants placed in charge of the vineyard.  For centuries, God had sent prophets to instruct the tenants on how to produce good fruit.  But the religious authorities ignored some, killed others, and dragged his only son outside the vineyard to kill him.  Because the religious authorities refuse to listen to this parable, the vineyard is taken away from them and given to a people who will produce good fruit.

            Instead of judging the religious leaders who refused to listen to this parable, we must realize that the Lord is speaking to us.  We are the current tenants entrusted to producing good fruit for the vineyard.  The stone rejected by the builders has turned hard, stony ground into fertile soil.  Now, we are entrusted with the work of producing good fruit.  For many decades, our bishops have set aside the month of October as “respect life month.”  They urge us to use this month to be tenants in the vineyard to produce the good fruit of respecting human life from the moment of conception through natural death.  Sadly, that is not at the heart of our current secular society.  Instead of regarding each human life as a gift from God, too many people regard human life as worthwhile if it is productive.  That transactional view of human nature means that we can determine the worth of another human being based on how useful they are.  In this view, it is easy to exclude people because of their disabilities, their ethnic makeup, their place of birth, their racial makeup, their advanced age, or any aspect factor not deemed to be useful.  Last week, I heard a story on the radio about the current debate about immigration and ICE activity.  In a small town in a very red state, the reporter marveled that the people of the town rallied around their immigrant neighbors and blocked ICE agents from coming into the town.  But, as the reporter continued the story, it became clear that the townspeople did not act out of concern for their inherent dignity.  They were more concerned that the removal of their neighbors would hamper the work of the major industry in town and cause the price of beef to go up.

            The Lord has given us the task of producing good fruit in his vineyard.  We need to build a wall of peace that guards our hearts and minds.  Then, we can make our requests known to God by prayer, petition, and thanksgiving.  Like Paul, we can learn from each other.  We rely on what we received from our elders who have gone before us and handed down our tradition.  We hear the Word of God spoken to us each Sunday.  We see how we can carry out our mission to bear fruit.  With the support of this community and the strength of the Eucharist, we can practice ways of seeing each human being made in the image and likeness of God.  As faithful tenants trusting in the Lord’s love, we can bear much fruit in this vineyard God has given to us.