Friday March 5  

SECOND WEEK OF LENT

 

Suffering Saves          

 

Introduction

Joseph suffered because his brothers were jealous. Yet later he would save them from famine. Jesus was rejected and died for our sins. He became the keystone for a new kingdom, for the life of all. And we? We want happiness without pain, without paying the price for it, though sacrifice and happiness are close relatives. If the grain of wheat does not die… We know this, but it’s too uncomfortable to put into practice if we are not forced by circumstances . . .

 

Opening Prayer

God, we do not want to die;
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make life worth the pain to be lived,
Give us back the age-old realization
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to you,
together with Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Reading 1: Gen 37:3-4, 12-13A, 17B-28A

Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons,
for he was the child of his old age;
and he had made him a long tunic.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons,
they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.

One day, when his brothers had gone
to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem,
Israel said to Joseph,
“Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem.
Get ready; I will send you to them.”

So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan.
They noticed him from a distance,
and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him.
They said to one another: “Here comes that master dreamer!
Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here;
we could say that a wild beast devoured him.
We shall then see what comes of his dreams.”

When Reuben heard this,
he tried to save him from their hands, saying,
“We must not take his life.
Instead of shedding blood,” he continued,
“just throw him into that cistern there in the desert;
but do not kill him outright.”
His purpose was to rescue him from their hands
and return him to his father.
So when Joseph came up to them,
they stripped him of the long tunic he had on;
then they took him and threw him into the cistern,
which was empty and dry.

They then sat down to their meal.
Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead,
their camels laden with gum, balm and resin
to be taken down to Egypt.
Judah said to his brothers:
“What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood?
Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites,
instead of doing away with him ourselves.
After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.”
His brothers agreed.
They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

(5a) Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
When the LORD called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
R.  Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.
R.  Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

 

Verse before the Gospel: Jn 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son;
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

 

Gospel: Mt 21:33-43, 45-46

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
“Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?”
They answered him,
He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times.”
Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,
they knew that he was speaking about them.
And although they were attempting to arrest him,
they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

 

Intercessions

• For those who are betrayed in their friendship and trust, we pray:
• For street children and young people abandoned and neglected by their families, we pray:
• For all those who suffer in their bodies and for those seriously ill, that they may find strength and consolation in the cross of our Lord, we pray:

 

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
we celebrate your Son’s victory over death.
Through him you give us life
and teach us to accept death.
Lord, help us to love life
without refusing to suffer when necessary
for the sake of love and renewal.
May we see the fear of death
and the urge for life
in the light of the life and death
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, make us fully accept
the realities of life:
that there is no birth without pain,
no growth without effort,
no adulthood without struggle,
no wisdom without experience and practice.
God, raise us above ourselves,
that we may understand and accept
the wisdom of the cross
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Blessing

Joseph forgave his brothers and became a blessing to them. On the cross Jesus brought us forgiveness and life and a beautiful sign of this was how he forgave those who had led him to the cross. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

Commentary

We remember the famous Song of the Vineyard, composed by Isaiah, talks about a winegrower who prepared the soil, carved it, cleaned it from the stones, planted some precious vines, and then built a tower; and then expected it to produce grape, wine, joy, but instead produced inedible bunches of wild grapes. It is the sad story of unreciprocated love of God for this people.
And Jesus knows this song of the vine well, and in the parable, he recalls precisely all these concerns of the Lord for his people. We are at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew and also at the end of the life of Jesus. The top religious authorities are about to commit a great crime.

After entrusting the vineyard to the peasants, the Lord, the owner of the vineyard, went far away. It represents the Lord who has now entrusted his people with the mission of producing joy. Now we are waiting for the fruits.

What was expected of these servants who were entrusted with the vineyard of Israel? Book of Isiah had taught them: ” Learn to do good; seek the right. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow” (Is 1:17). Those are the fruits that the Lord of the vineyard wanted.

The Lord loves his vineyard so much that he continues to send his prophets. But Israel rejected them, killed them. The owner of the vineyard loves this vineyard so much that finally He sends his Son. But the son was removed from the vineyard; the managers expelled the son and killed him. The parable clearly describes what Jesus foresaw; he realised that the religious authorities were about to take him out of the way, expel him from the vineyard. In fact, Jesus is executed outside the Holy City, as if he were someone who contaminated it.

Today our Christian community must be careful because the danger of chasing God’s Son out of the vineyard is current for us. The Son, the Gospel….When we cast the Gospel out, we are casting the Son out of the vineyard. Think of the challenges the Christians face on values of family, sacrament of marriage, debates on abortion, and many more issues – many in the Church follow the values of the world, chase away Christ and his Gospel.

What is the result of throwing the Gospel out of our lives? Wars, crimes, destruction of creation, despair and loneliness. This parable is addressed to us today. Open your eyes, recognise the Son, don’t throw him out of the vineyard.