Our faithfulness and acceptance of Jesus must be greater than those in today’s Gospel. God has planted a vineyard among us and calls us to bear fruit. The Gospel of Matthew is called a “book of mercy.” The Lord will offer others his gift of salvation and a relationship with himself to all the earth. By this, we see that now, the gift of salvation moves beyond just the Jewish people but extends to all peoples.

The Church offers us Jesus’ universal mission to provide the gift of salvation to all people. In Baptism, we who have accepted this gift must stand firm and realize that we have a role to play. As we say yes to Christ, it must enter all aspects of our lives and bear fruit. The Lord has cultivated a beautiful vineyard for all the world to live in.

As the Synod of Bishops began this week to look at Synodality, we are called to live out Jesus’ teachings in an intentional way by listening to the ways in which God speaks to his Church. We can not take for granted God’s gifts given to us all. The scriptures point to the stone once rejected, now called the cornerstone. It is God who makes all things come together in unity. In today’s Gospel parable, the vineyard is God’s kingdom, and the tenants represent our human responsibility to be stewards of it.