Word to the Wise
Monday, June 1, 2015 - Monday in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
[Tob 1:3; 2:1a-8 and Mark 12:1-12]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 which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone..." [Mark]
June 1 - St. Justin, Martyr
The context of today's passage from the Gospel of Mark remains that of the time in Jerusalem days before Jesus is arrested. He has entered Jerusalem, created a commotion in the temple and is now confronting an angry religious elite. The parable today is directed at them and they know it. It is not about landowner tenant relationships. The elite would know of the image from chapter five of Isaiah about Israel as the vineyard of the Lord. They would also know that Jesus' quote from Psalm 118:22 would refer to the temple, which was the symbol of their power. Jesus is confronting them with their stewardship and finding them wanting. It is not just this particular group at this particular time, however. Jesus is confronting all of their history of slaying the prophets and now they are being confronted with the Son! The evangelist Mark places this parable to have the greatest effect in telling his story of Jesus and his rejection by his own people.
The landowner (God) has a right to the produce from the tenants (in this case the Chosen People). They refuse and kill the messengers. All the earth is God's garden and God's tenants are everywhere, including us! When "messengers" come with the rightful demands of the landowner, are we going to reject them, or worse, do violence to them? I am thinking now about the projected encyclical on the environment that Pope Francis is going to publish soon. Already, certain pundits (indeed pundits who consider themselves pious Catholics) have begun to reject what they haven't even read yet. We have the benefit of reading this parable and hopefully learning a lesson from it. AMEN
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