Friday of the Second Week
“Remember the marvels the Lord has done,” so says the Psalm today, which seemed at first ironic wrapped in between two very difficult stories. In the first reading, as we read of Joseph’s brothers, mired in jealousy and hatred, and their plot to kill their youngest brother, are we supposed to see the marvels of the Lord when they simply sell him? Later in in the Gospel, Jesus shares a parable with the Pharisees, where one by one, a landowner’s tenants beat, stone, and kill his servants when they are simply trying to collect the produce for which they worked. Knowing this violence, the landowner sends his son to his tenants, and he is also beaten and killed. Where do we see the marvels of the Lord?
I am struck that these stories aren’t all that different, really, from what we witness in our world today: modern-day lynchings, wars, hunger, a profound disregard for our earth. Violence is pervasive, rooted in greed, jealousy, a want for power, in our forgetting the marvels the Lord has done, in forgetting the Lord.
Jesus’ message in the parable grounds the message of the Psalm: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. We need to remember this marvelous truth - God is our cornerstone, the rock we can rely on, amidst our difficulties, even amidst the violence. It is through God, and God alone, that we find strength, protection, a rootedness that steadies us in difficult times. And despite the violence of this world, God offers us all that is true, good, and marvelous. God offers Himself.
Let us remember the marvels the Lord has done
Prayer
Good and gracious God, help me to remember Your steadfast love, here for me in any circumstance and at all times. You are the cornerstone on which everything is built. Open my heart to trust more fully in you. Amen.
Heidi St. Peter, ’96, Purposeful Learning
Psalm 105:16-21
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website
