Reflection
The parable told in today’s Gospel is about how the chief priests and elders are interrogating Jesus about the source of His authority. He responds with the parable of the landowner who establishes a beautiful vineyard on his property and hires tenants to oversee it. When the crops are ready for harvest, he sends his servants to collect his share, but the tenants beat and murder them. Finally, the landowner sends his own son, but he too is killed. Jesus asks the elders who are listening to his parable what the landowner should do to the malicious tenants, and they answer that surely they will be put to death in punishment. Jesus replies by quoting the Scripture: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.”
The elders, we are told, knew that they were speaking about them, perhaps as the tenants. Did they not see that Jesus was the stone that they were rejecting, but that would someday become the cornerstone of an entirely new structure, a new church in the name of Jesus?
To me, there is both a warning and comfort in this parable. The warning is to all of us working in the current church to not become too complacent about the status quo. The comfort is that Jesus is indeed the cornerstone of the magnificent “new” church of Christians.
Prayer
God, help us not be too comfortable with the way we have always done things, and to always see the beauty and blessedness of all those who are rejected, as Jesus himself was rejected.
Vince Bolduc, Professor of Sociology
Psalm 105:16-21
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website
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