Friday of the Second Week of Lent
Intention: For a spirit of compassion and generosity among all who are able to share what they have with others, especially with those who are most in need.
Today’s Gospel | Matthew 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.
Reflection
In James Goldman’s play, The Lion in Winter, Eleanor of Aquitaine and her husband, King Henry II, are spending a mean Christmas together. Their stormy and vitriolic relationship has reached rock bottom as they plot and strike against one another, each hoping to land a final vengeful and crushing blow. In one scene, Eleanor wearily surveys the disastrous remains of the promising life that they had once built together and asks Henry, “How, from where we started, did we ever reach this Christmas?” Slowly, the king replies, “Step by step.”
Jesus’ parable of the tenants makes clear that it was in the sinfulness of avarice and pride that the tenants rejected the landowner and murdered his son. Soon, the priests and Pharisees in Jerusalem would in the same way reject Jesus and the Father’s Kingdom. What the story does not explain is how the tenants came to be so corrupt. Perhaps this is because Jesus’ audience already knew, having seen how it happened within the Temple establishment. Once sincere leaders began to suffer the effects of social power, succumbing to seductive opportunities and personal weaknesses and gradually compromising their values and virtue. Over time, they would join in the worldly decadence that their faith had been meant to overcome. Servants of God would become his opponents. Step by step.
One lesson of this parable is how easily and unwittingly good persons can go astray. A popular wilderness expert warns that it is usually not because of one large bad decision that people get lost, but because of many small ones. Similarly, it is through treating carelessly the basic ethical choices of ordinary daily living that we steadily lose our way. With no moral compass, occasional lapses of conscience become habit and the exceptional failure to do right becomes the rule. We become like the tenants, disconnected from conscience and unperturbed by sinfulness.
Author Leo Babauta writes, “At the end of the day, the questions we ask of ourselves determine the type of people that we will become.” The time of Lent is a chance to grow in our commitment to such conversations. While God freely offers to us his forgiveness and healing for our transgressions, it is done with the love of a Father who wishes for his children to experience the freedom of integrity. It is up to us to cooperate with God in returning ourselves to this vision of faithfulness.
Prayer
Eternal Father, our lives often go astray because we see only what we want to see and pursue only what we want for ourselves. Just as your Son conquered faithlessness, conquer in us the ways that we close ourselves to you. In this time of Lent, open us to new life, new hope, and new possibilities, seeing this world as you would have it. Help us to walk in your ways and to accompany one another on your path to healing and wholeness. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.