Jesus stands in a temple still under construction and quotes a song every priest in the courtyard knew by heart, Isaiah's love song about a vineyard that gave God stinking grapes. Then he changes one thing, and Origen caught it: in Isaiah the vineyard takes the blame, and in the Gospel the tenants do. What follows works through all four readings, with Isaiah's Hebrew pun on justice and bloodshed, Augustine on the old vineyard Christ keeps and makes better, Aquinas on the four marks of real prayer in Philippians, and the construction detail that makes "the stone which the builders rejected" land like a hammer.
The Readings
First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He digged it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry!
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
Lectionary numbering. The RSVCE numbers this psalm one verse lower, so the text below is RSVCE Psalm 80:8, 11, 12-13, 14-15, 18-19, and the analysis cites it by those numbers.
Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt; thou didst drive out the nations and plant it. It sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
Why then hast thou broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine, the stock which thy right hand planted.
Then we will never turn back from thee; give us life, and we will call on thy name! Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! let thy face shine, that we may be saved!
Second Reading: Philippians 4:6-9
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43
"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."
Scriptural Analysis
Isaiah 5:1-7: A Love Song That Turns Into A Lawsuit
Isaiah opens like a wedding singer and closes like a prosecutor. The Navarre commentators call the Song of the Vineyard a masterpiece of Hebrew poetry and lay out its moves: in verses 1 and 2 the prophet sings as God's friend, in verses 3 to 6 the owner himself takes the microphone, and in verse 7 the prophet tells the crowd what they have been listening to. They compare it to Nathan's parable of the poor man's lamb (2 Sam 12:1-15), told to a king who condemns the villain before learning the villain is him.[1] Aquinas, reading the Latin canticum, points out that a canticle is properly a song of joy, so this one is misnamed: it is a lament dressed as a love song, like David's dirge over Saul on the mountains of Gilboa.[2] Jerome heard the "beloved" of verse 1 as Christ, who would one day weep over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44).[3]
Look at how much the owner does, because the song wants you to count it. The Hebrew says the vineyard sat on "a horn, the son of oil," and Aquinas explains the idiom: a hill that stands out to catch the sun, soil so rich it could be called the child of olive oil.[4] The owner digs, clears the stones, plants soreq (so-REK), the choice red vine, builds a stone watchtower, and cuts a wine vat out of the bedrock. Ambrose read the hedge as heavenly precepts with the angels standing guard, and Basil said our soul is "dug around" when we lay aside the worldly cares that burden our hearts.[5] Aquinas reads the wine vat as the altar of holocausts, "because of the outpouring of blood."[6]
Then the crop comes in, and it's be'ushim (beh-oo-SHEEM). The RSVCE says "wild grapes," but the Hebrew root means to stink. These are grapes gone rotten on a vine that had every advantage. Verses 3 and 4 put the listeners on the jury, and Aquinas notices that the owner cross-examines himself first: did he fail through negligence? He hears in "What more was there to do for my vineyard" the voice of Micah 6:3, "O my people, what have I done to you?"[7] Your people know that line from the Good Friday Reproaches.
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