Friday March 18, 2022

Friday of 2nd Week in Lent

 

Suffering Saves

 

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 . . .

 

First Reading: Genesis 37:3-4; 12-13; 17-28 

Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him

His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father’s flocks. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them.”

Joseph said, “I’m ready.”

The man said, “They’ve left here, but I overheard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan.

They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.”

Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, “We’re not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out here in the wild, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned to go back later and get him out and take him back to his father.

When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing, grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn’t any water in it.

Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said, “Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not kill him—he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

 By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt.

 

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-44 

 “Here’s another story. Listen closely. There was once a man, a wealthy farmer, who planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, put up a watchtower, then turned it over to the farmhands and went off on a trip. When it was time to harvest the grapes, he sent his servants back to collect his profits.

 “The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more servants. They got the same treatment. The owner was at the end of his rope. He decided to send his son. ‘Surely,’ he thought, ‘they will respect my son.’

 “But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. ‘This is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all for ourselves.’ They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him.

 “Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands?”

 “He’ll kill them—a rotten bunch, and good riddance,” they answered. “Then he’ll assign the vineyard to farmhands who will hand over the profits when it’s time.”

Jesus said, “Right—and you can read it for yourselves in your Bibles:

The stone the masons threw out
    is now the cornerstone.
This is God’s work;
    we rub our eyes, we can hardly believe it!

“This is the way it is with you. God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life. Whoever stumbles on this Stone gets shattered; whoever the Stone falls on gets smashed.”

 

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. Amen.

 

Reflection :

Throwing the Word out of our lives?
We remember the famous Song of the Vineyard, composed by Isaiah, which talks about a vine-grower who prepared the soil, carved it, cleaned it from the stones, planted some precious vines, and then built a watch-tower; and then expected it to produce the best grape, and from the grapes, wine and happiness. But instead, the vines produced inedible bunches of wild grapes. It is the sad story of unreturned love of God for the 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 – to capture and kill Jesus.

After entrusting the vineyard to the peasants, the Lord, the owner of the vineyard, goes far away. It represents the Lord who has now entrusted his followers with the mission of producing joy.

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 and killed them. The owner of the vineyard loves this vineyard to the extent that finally He sends his Son. But the managers expelled the son and killed him. The parable clearly describes what Jesus foresaw; he realized that the religious authorities were about to take him out of the way, expel him from the vineyard. Jesus was 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 continues to happen. When we cast the Gospel out of our lives, we are casting the Son out of the vineyard. Think of the challenges that confront the sacraments of marriage and family, debates on abortion, and many more issues – many in the Church prefer to follow the values of the world. The values of the gospel are regarded outdated, old-fashioned and many Christians prefer to 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 – out of our lives.

 

Video available on Youtube: Throwing the Word out of our lives?