27th Sunday in Ordinary Time: What Has God Entrusted to You?

Virtual Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 4, 2026: Guest Reflection for Fr. Jim

 What Are We Doing With What God Has Entrusted to Us?

A Reflection on Matthew 21:33–43
By Ryan Dilag, Director of Content & Executive Producer, San Gabriel Media

Hi everyone, my name is Ryan Dilag and I’m pinch-hitting for Fr. Jim as he recovers in the hospital.

There is a word that stands out to me in today’s Gospel: entrusted.

The owner of the vineyard had carefully prepared it. He planted it; he protected it by putting a fence around it; he dug a winepress; and he built a tower. After preparing the vineyard, the owner leased it to some tenants and left it to their care.

The vineyard didn’t belong to the tenants. For a period of time, however, it was entrusted to them.  

That distinction makes all the difference.

In fact, if we are honest with ourselves, most everything in our lives can be understood similarly.

The gifts God has given us have been entrusted to us. The time we have been given has been entrusted to us. The relationships we’ve developed have been entrusted to us. The people we love, the communities where we belong to, the opportunities we’ve been given, and the faith God has given us–each of these is a gift that has been entrusted to us.

And eventually, we need to ask ourselves: What are we doing with what God has entrusted to us?

A Faith that Bears Fruit

The issue with the tenants in Jesus’ parable isn’t just that they failed to produce fruit. They began to act as if the vineyard belonged to them.

When the landowner sent servant after servant to collect the harvest, the tenants rejected them. When the landowner finally sent his son, they rejected him as well.

They forgot who they were.

And perhaps there is a lesson in this for us.

It is easy to start viewing our lives exclusively as “my”–my time, my talents, my successes, my plans, my achievements.

However, the Gospel calls us into a different way of seeing.

What if instead of saying, “What belongs to me?,” we began asking: “What has God entrusted to me?”

This question changes things.

If God has entrusted me with specific gifts, how am I using them for other people?

If God has entrusted me with relationships, how am I taking care of those people?

If God has provided me with opportunities, how am I using those opportunities to serve others?

If God has given me faith, is my faith actually transforming me to live differently?

Jesus says that the Kingdom of God will be given to people who will “produce its fruit.”

Faith is meant to produce fruit.

And that fruit doesn’t have to be anything spectacular or sensational. Sometimes, it is simply living patiently with someone who frustrates us. Sometimes, it is offering forgiveness to someone who harmed us. Sometimes, it means recognizing the individual everybody else seems to ignore. Sometimes, it is making the choice to listen rather than talk. Sometimes, it may simply involve showing up when someone needs us.

Whenever the love we have received from God becomes love offered to somebody else, that is where we find the fruit of our faith.

The Stone that was Rejected

Near the end of the Gospel, Jesus quotes Scripture:

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

This refers ultimately to Christ Himself. The Son who is rejected becomes the cornerstone upon which something new is built.

And there is great hopefulness in that picture.

God has an incredible ability to do great things with what the world ignores, disregards, or rejects.

The unseen person.

A broken relationship.

A past failure we wish we could undo.

A part of ourselves we feel is inadequate.

God can take what the world has rejected and make it a cornerstone.

That does not imply that every difficult circumstance instantly turns into an easy one. Nor does it mean every unmet expectation disappears. It means that rejection, failure, and brokenness do not get the final word.

God does.

What Has God Entrusted to You?

Perhaps what Jesus is inviting us into is simply looking at the vineyard of our own lives. 

Look at the individuals God has placed around you. 

Look at your gifts. 

Look at your opportunities. 

Look at your faith. 

Even look at parts of your story you’d prefer not to acknowledge.

And ask:

What has God entrusted to me?

Then ask the harder question:

What kind of fruit am I producing with it?

We don’t have to produce perfect fruit. We’ll mess up. We’ll miss opportunities. There will be seasons in life when our lives will seem fruitful and times when they will appear barren.

Yet, God continually invites us to cultivate what has been given.

So this week, perhaps you might pick something that God has entrusted to you–a relationship, a gift, an opportunity, or merely your presence–and intentionally use it to create a little more love, mercy, hope, and belonging within someone else’s life.

Because ultimately, the vineyard does not belong to us.

It belongs to God.

We simply have the extraordinary privilege of helping it bear fruit.

God is for everyone.