10 March, 2023 | Friday of the Second Week of Lent

 Gospel : Mt 21:33-43, 45-46

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:

""Hear another parable.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,

put a hedge around it,

dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.

Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.

When vintage time drew near,

he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.

But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,

another they killed, and a third they stoned.

Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,

but they treated them in the same way.

Finally, he sent his son to them,

thinking, 'They will respect my son.'

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,

'This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'

They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?""

They answered him,

""He will put those wretched men to a wretched death

and lease his vineyard to other tenants

who will give him the produce at the proper times.""

Jesus said to them, ""Did you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

by the Lord has this been done,

and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Therefore, I say to you,

the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you

and given to a people that will produce its fruit.""

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,

they knew that he was speaking about them.

And although they were attempting to arrest him,

they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

Reflections :

The parable that Jesus tells us is a story of rejection. It also suggests that God always has a purpose for what is rejected. Although Jesus was rejected by the religious and political leaders of the day he rose from the dead. The experience of Jesus teaches us that what is rejected can often turn out to be of great importance. Those areas of our own lives that we may be prone to reject and slow to accept may be the very channels through which the Lord can work most powerfully in our lives and through us in the lives of others. What seemed like an experience of death becomes a moment of new life. 

Activity : 

Repeat silently,  “all things work together for good for those who love God.”

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