"They knew well enough that the parable was for them." Mark's rather sharp comment on the reaction of "the chief priests, the scribes and the elders" is a summary of their continuing attitude to Jesus, which eventually leads to their final rejection of Jesus. Since Mark's words are part of the Gospel, they are also God's words to us, words which we must somehow apply to ourselves to help us "derive some spiritual fruit", as St. Ignatius encourages us.

This parable, like many others, seems to be so firmly rooted in a particular historical and cultural context that it says very little to us. With the grace and enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, let us see what spiritual fruit we can draw from Jesus' teaching, for St Paul (Romans 15:4) has already provided us with a guiding principle: "All that was written long ago in the Scriptures was meant to teach us about hope."

The vineyard owner sent many messengers and finally his son. So too, God sends us many messengers and finally his Son. The many messengers are the saints, those who have communicated the faith to us, our parents, teachers, pastors and in fact the whole Church.