3 June, 2024 | Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs
2 Pt 1:2-7
Gospel Mk 12:1-12
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.
Reflections:
Reflection: In this parable we learn of God’s powerful perseverance and his sense of justice where labour and fruits are concerned. God is the vineyard owner who leases it out to us, his tenants. Having set it up to produce great fruits, he expects us to reap a rich harvest from it, for him. It is so important that we focus on God as the vineyard owner, lest we fail on his instructions and what he expects as produce. When he is faced with silence instead of the produce, he sends out several reminders as a mark of his powerful perseverance. However, when we fail to regard him as the owner, when we try to usurp his glory from the produce or when we try to grab ownership of the land itself, then he executes his justice. He replaces us with better labourers as tenants because for him, justice matters too.
Activity:
Value the vineyard of gifts and talents that God has leased out to you. Evaluate if we you faithfully returnto him the produce he expects from it, giving him the glory for them.
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