From the responsorial psalm: “Because he clings to me, I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in distress. In you, my God, I place my trust.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (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. 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.”
Mark’s Gospel continues from last week’s, where the Jewish leaders questioned Jesus’ authority to preach the word of God, perform miracles, and cleanse the temple area. Jesus goes on to explain the kingdom of God to them in the parable of the vineyard. The parable speaks to various facets of God’s intervention in our lives, such as his covenant with Israel, the rejection of the prophets, the sending of his son, and of his rejection and crucifixion. All of this has consequences to those who encounter Jesus and hear his word. The parable tells about the landowner, who will come and destroy the corrupt tenants and give the vineyard to others. In this, Jesus speaks of the second coming and the final judgment and the fulfillment of God’s promises in bringing all into his kingdom. In the vineyard Jesus describes, what is the fruit of the vine that is meant to be shared with all?
God, I think at first that surely I am not one of the wicked tenant farmers caring for the vineyard. Yet, I daily take a role in that vineyard and choose freely whether to do your will. Jesus says at the end of the parable: “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others.” With this in mind, how do I receive the gifts you give me in being one of your tenants? Do I take a selfish stance to the gifts you give me, or do I trust that in your boundless love, that in the new and everlasting covenant there is always plenty of the same love you entrust to me to receive and give away? In you, my God, I place my trust. Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.