Dr. Scott Hahn wants parishioners to remember that they need to take care of themselves and their faith to make sure they don't become "overgrown," according to a church bulletin for the Mother of Divine Mercy Parish, which includes Saint Josaphat Church and Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in Detroit.

"We are each a vine in the Lord's vineyard, grafted onto the true vine of Christ, called to bear fruits of the righteousness in Hum, and to be the 'first fruits' of a new creation," Hahn wrote in the bulletin. "We need to take care that we don't let ourselves become overgrown with the thorns and briers of worldly anxiety."

Hahn wrote that parishioners need to fill both their hearts and minds with the best and noble intentions, as well as virtuous deeds, and rejoice that the Lord is near.

He said that a symbol of the vineyard that was previously used in the Old Testament was used by Jesus to teach about the kingdom of God, Israel and the church. 

"God is the owner and the house of Israel is the vineyard," he wrote. "A cherished vine, Israel was plucked from Egypt and transplanted in a fertile land specially spaded and prepared by God, hedged about by the city walls of Jerusalem, watched over by the towering Temple. But the vineyard produced no good grapes for the wine, a symbol for the holy lives God wanted for His people."

God then allowed the vineyard to become overrun by foreign invaders, the church bulletin states. Hahn said Jesus then began the store where Isaiah had stopped, using the same words to describe the winepress, watchtower and hedge. He said in Jesus' parable, that the religious leaders didn't learn anything from Isaiah or Israel's past and, instead, did not produce good fruits as they should have.

Jesus said that the religious leaders' final outrage would "seize the owner's son" and kill him outside the vineyard's walls — which foreshadowed his own crucifixion, Hahn wrote.

Hahn wrote that in the parable, the vineyard was the kingdom of God, which would be taken away and given to new tenants, which were the church's leaders. Those leaders will then produce the fruit.