Word to the Wise
Monday, June 5, 2017 - Monday in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
[Tob 1:3; 2:1a-8 and Mark 12:1-12]The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes. [Mark]
JUNE 5 ST. BONIFACE, bishop and martyr
The Church is back in "Ordinary Time" now and we go from Easter to Ascension to Pentecost to Ordinary Time in rather quick succession. Ordinary Time picks up in the Gospel According to Mark and with the parable of the wicked tenants that Jesus addresses to the temple authorities. Although scripture scholars indicate that each of the three "synoptic" gospels seems to use this parable in a different way, the broad theme of rejection comes through clearly. And within that theme of rejection we have Jesus quoting from Psalm 118:22-23 about the rejected stone becoming the corner stone of a building because God has determined this to be. This image of Christ as the cornerstone would become popular in the early church as may be seen in St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians (2:19-22).
The early church faced scorn and ridicule for preaching that a lowly carpenter from a non-descript village in Roman-occupied Palestine could be the savior of the world, especially someone who had been crucified by the Romans. But rejection has been a constant theme in the Bible, as the parable points out in many ways. The prophets experienced this over and over again. God seems to pick unlikely figures to confront the world with its unfaithfulness. God became one of those unlikely figures in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Each of us, by our baptism, becomes one of those unlikely folks chosen to confront the world! If we are faithful, we can expect others to suspect our motives or consider us "religious fanatics." However, history shows that the Christian message is attractive to many other "unlikely folks" like you and me. The future of the Church depends not on the work only of the ordained ministers, but on the everyday faithfulness of ordinary believers. It is this kind of faithfulness, shared with anyone, that will bear fruit in the vineyard of the Lord. AMEN
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