From the Heart of the Shepherd
From the bulletin for The Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2026 September 27)
September 27, 2026 - 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Deeper Dive
The Gospel for this Sunday, the parable of the two sons, on the surface seems straightforward enough. In fact, its lesson can be summed up in another saying of Our Lord: “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21). The first son merely says he will obey. The second son actually obeys. We make Jesus our Lord by doing the Father’s will, not by our lip service. Etc. Etc.
But the Fathers of the Church saw more going on. There are actually two strands of interpretation.
The first line, championed by heavy hitters like St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom, understands the parable as relating the history of the Jews and Gentiles. The Gentiles are represented by the first son, since before Abraham, all were Gentiles. These effectively responded “I will not” to God’s command that they serve Him when they chose to worship false gods. But “afterwards,” when they encountered Christ, they “changed their minds,” i.e. converted and began to serve God.
Israel, in contrast, is represented by the second son. When that nation made a covenant with God under Moses, they had said, “We will do everything the Lord has said” (Ex. 19:8). But subsequently, they did not live out the Lord’s commands, they “did not go” into His vineyard.
The interpretation is an intriguing one, because of the degree of “fit” between the parable and the history, at least if we understand things in broad strokes (not all the Gentiles have accepted Christ; not all the Israelites rejected Him, and at least some were faithful to the covenant before Christ). And this reading is supported by the fact that, in Matthew 21, the parable of the two sons is followed immediately by the parable of the wicked tenants. There, Jesus again speaks about a vineyard, and the moral of the parable is that “the kingdom of God [the “vineyard”] will be taken away from you [the Jews, or perhaps the Jewish leaders] and given to a people that will produce its fruit [the Gentiles, or perhaps the Church].
And yet the fit is not perfect. There is another line of interpretation–and Jerome acknowledges it–who observe that the punchline of the parable is not “Gentiles are entering the kingdom before you (Jews),” but rather “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you (chief priests and elders)” (Mt 21:31). The parable, therefore, should be understood as speaking about the “unrepenting righteous” and (repentant) sinners, not Jews and Gentiles. This reading is supported by the fact that the parable comes right after the debate about Jesus’ authority and the authority of John the Baptist, a debate whose relevance was entirely contained within Judaism. Those who recognize the heavenly origin of John’s preaching and heed his call to repentance, and his identification of the Lamb are those to whom the Kingdom are given, whereas those who were previously in authority, who sat on the chair of Moses but refused to acknowledge John as a prophet, will have the kingdom taken from them.
Following Fathers (like St. Jerome) we don’t need to choose between the two readings. They are both correct in their way. What matters is that we take the parable to heart. Whatever our past, whatever our nationality, whether we are cradle Catholics or adult converts, and whatever “words” we utter by our outward show, the talk we talk, or the position and authority we enjoy within the Church, what matters in God’s eyes is that we do His will. Those who do so enter the Kingdom. They become the “mother, brothers, and sisters” of Jesus. Even if we were pagans a moment ago, or have been a publican or prostitute in our own way, so long as we are willing to “change our mind” and devote ourselves to serving God in the vineyard of Christ’s activity in this life, we can rejoice and be at peace, for “the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mt 19:14).
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