Parable of the Wicked Tenants

March 05, 2021, Friday
Friday of the Second Week of Lent (Violet)
CYCLE B - YEAR I
RDGS: GN 37:3-4. 12-13. 17-28/ PS 105:16-17. 18-19. 20-21
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 winepress 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.

GOSPEL REFLECTION: 

We are the tenants in the parable. We are provided by God with everything we need to make our vineyard prosper. God gives us the freedom to run the vineyard as we choose – but it is God’s. We need to be sensitive to what God desires of us. This is what prayer is about – coming to know the mind of God about our lives.

PRAYER:

Jesus, you were thrown out and killed. But you took no revenge. Instead, you excused your torturers and by your love, you reconciled everyone with God. You showed what divine love is like. You love me totally, no matter what I do. May I always wish others well, and pray for them instead of taking revenge on them when they hurt me.