Friends,
today’s Gospel tells of the landowner who planted a vineyard and leased
it to tenants. This vineyard stands for Israel, but it could be
broadened to include the whole world. Like the landowner, God has made
for his people a beautiful and productive place, a place where they can
find rest, enjoyment, and good work.
When
vintage time drew near, the landowner sent his servants to the tenants
to obtain the produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they
beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. Is this not the
whole, sorry history of Israel and its prophets, of the world and the
people whom God has sent?
Then
we hear the event upon which the parable turns: “Finally, he sent his
son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants
saw the son, they killed him.” After the terrible treatment that his
representatives have received, the owner sends his son? Is he crazy?
Yes, a little. But this is the over-the-top patience and generosity of
God, his crazy love. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,”
knowing full well what his fate would be.
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 353
Beloved:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance
through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has bestowed on us
everything that makes for life and devotion,
through the knowledge of him
who called us by his own glory and power.
Through these, he has bestowed on us
the precious and very great promises,
so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature,
after escaping from the corruption that is in the world
because of evil desire.
For this very reason,
make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,
self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes,
and the elders in parables.
"A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.
At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants
to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
But they seized him, beat him,
and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent them another servant.
And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
He sent yet another whom they killed.
So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
He had one other to send, a beloved son.
He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
So they seized him and killed him,
and threw him out of the vineyard.
What then will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come, put the tenants to death,
and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this Scripture passage:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?"They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd,
for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them.
So they left him and went away.
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