[ver_04] 27th Sunday _Year A ● ● October 4, 2026 ● ● ● ● ● Isaiah 5:1-7 ● Psalm 80 ● Philippians 4:6-9 ● Matthew 21:33-43 ●● ●
When Did
Your Life Begin?
1. When Did
Your Life Begin?
When did
your life begin?
If I asked
you that question, you would naturally think about your date of birth: month,
day and year.
But there
are other ways to answer that question.
Our life
begins when we discover what we are good at, what we are going to do with our
lives, what our calling or vocation might be.
Our life
begins again when we confess our sins and receive absolution from God in the
Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
Our life
begins again when, with God's grace, we find the strength to forgive someone
who has trespassed against us.
There are
many times throughout our lives when God gives us the grace to begin again.
2.
Priesthood, Home and Seminary
Sometimes
people ask me, "Padre, when did you know you wanted to be a priest?"
There wasn't
one particular moment.
After
college, I took a gap year before going to the seminary—and then I repeated the
gap year about thirteen times.
Eventually,
I entered the seminary in my mid-thirties.
But after I
entered the seminary, I realized that my formation for the priesthood had begun
long before that.
It began at
home—with my mother and father, my grandparents, my two brothers and my sister.
It began through the way we lived together and practiced our faith.
God was
already forming me before I understood where he was leading me.
And that's
true for all of us.
God is at
work in our lives even before we recognize what he is doing.
3. Respect
Life Sunday
Today is
Respect Life Sunday, and so that question—When did your life begin?—takes on
another meaning.
Our Catholic
faith teaches us that human life is sacred from conception until natural death.
Before we
know whether a child will be rich or poor, strong or weak, healthy or sick,
successful or unsuccessful, that life already has dignity.
Life is
God's gift.
And Respect
Life Sunday is not simply about winning an argument or proving a point.
It is about
protecting unborn life, but also about caring for the mother and father who may
be experiencing a difficult or crisis pregnancy.
It is about
caring for the elderly, the sick, people living with disabilities, and anyone
whose life may seem vulnerable or unwanted.
Every life
has dignity.
4. Respect
Life and Mercy
And respect
for life has to become concrete.
Here at Our
Lady of Lourdes, one way we do that during October is through our Respect Life
Baby Shower.
We collect
new items—diapers, blankets, clothing—and monetary donations for Several
Sources in Ramsey, helping mothers, children and families who may need
practical assistance.
But there is
another way Respect Life Sunday has to become concrete.
It has to
include mercy.
If you have
ever been involved, directly or indirectly, in an abortion, or if you carry
sorrow or regret because of one, remember this:
God's
mercy is greater than any of our sins.
No sin is
beyond God's reach.
And if you
have been away from the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation for a long
time, any priest—including me—would be happy to hear your confession and guide
you through the steps.
There is
contrition.
There is
absolution.
There is
forgiveness.
There is
healing.
And with
God's grace, life can begin
again.
5. The
Vineyard
That brings
us to the vineyard in today's Gospel.
A landowner
carefully prepares a vineyard and entrusts it to tenants.
When the
time comes for the harvest, he sends servants to receive its fruit. But the
tenants reject them.
Finally, the
owner sends his son, thinking:
"They
will respect my son."
But they
reject the son too.
Jesus is
speaking about himself.
He is the
Son who is sent into the vineyard and rejected.
But being
rejected does not mean that he has no value.
Quite the opposite.
Jesus tells
us that the stone rejected by the builders becomes the cornerstone.
6. What Has
Been Entrusted to Us?
And that
word entrusted
is important.
The tenants
have been entrusted with the vineyard. They don't own it absolutely.
And so many
things in our lives have been entrusted to us.
Our
possessions have been entrusted to us.
Our
abilities and talents have been entrusted to us.
Our time has
been entrusted to us.
Our families
have been entrusted to us.
Our children
have been entrusted to us.
Life
itself has been entrusted to us.
We receive
these things as gifts from God, and we are called to cultivate them and bear
fruit with them.
7. What
Fruit Are We Producing?
And so the
Gospel leaves us with another question:
What
fruit are we producing with what God has entrusted to us?
Can a
frightened mother find somebody willing to stand beside her?
Can parents
struggling to care for a child find support?
Can someone
who is elderly or sick know that his or her life still matters?
Can someone
carrying sorrow from the past discover that God's mercy is greater than that
past?
We will not
always produce the fruit perfectly.
We fail.
We sin.
We make
mistakes.
But God's
mercy is greater than our failures.
And God
continually gives us the grace to begin again.
8. Christ
the Cornerstone
So we return
to the question with which we began:
When
did your life begin?
Our physical
life has a beginning.
But
throughout our lives, God continually calls us to new beginnings.
Life is
God's gift.
Life is
entrusted to us.
And when we
fail to care for that gift as faithfully as God calls us to, we can turn back
to him.
Because our
failures are not the cornerstone.
Christ
is.
Even when we
fail, Christ remains.
Even when we
wander, Christ calls us back.
Even when we
need to begin again, Christ continues to build us up.
"The
stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has
this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes."
