“…“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes” (Matt 21:42)
(Year A: The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, 4th
October, 2020)
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READINGS (COI & paired as between the Gospel and the Old
Testament readings)
See, also Mark 12:1-12 and Luke 20:9-19
Yet another parable of Jesus is presented to us in the
Gospel of Saint Matthew. Picture a landowner planting a vineyard, some tenants
and a few slaves and the harvest. We may
imagine different scenarios for this story ranging from our own role in
possibly resisting the Word of God in our lives or the centrality of grace
found in Jesus Christ the cornerstone of our redeemed lives. But, we need to be
mindful of the historical context in which this parable or story is told.
Matthew, as already said in previous blogs, is written by a Jewish Christian in
a Jewish Christian community in the last half of the first century. These were
seriously no fun times for Christians – or Jews who had submitted to Christ
while remaining Jewish.
Persecution, torture, ostracism and death faced many as Rome
crushed and dispersed the Chosen People and as the new faith founded on Jesus
began to spread West and East and South and North (usually the western part
dominates the history books).
Rejection and acceptance feature throughout scripture
including, for example, in the Letter of Peter (1
Peter 2:4-7)
Come
to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in
God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a
spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: ‘See,
I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and
whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ To you then who believe, he
is precious; but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders
rejected has become the very head of the corner’,
Jesus the Christ was rejected by some of his own people and,
above all, by those in control of the Temple, the interpretation of the Law and
allocation of justice. Yet, he was and
is the cornerstone. Those sent in the
name of Jesus were rejected and persecuted by those who will not accept the
Gospel and its demands. We may find
ourselves in the dual position of being rejected as well as being among those
who reject. We fail to see Christ in our
brother who pleads with us for mercy and understanding. We may, without knowing
it, reject Christ, daily, in the those who are different to us and who cross
our path for a purpose in God’s larger design.
God’s plan is that each person should be conceived, born and
nurtured by love, in love and for love. While it does not always work this way
in practice, we can be sure that our place and our call is to respond,
generously, to this love. If we feel rejected, so was our brother and Lord. If
we feel loved and accepted then so we must extend that welcome and love to
others.
The great majority of us were blessed with a loving
mother. Most of us have known a special
love in the course of our lives. This is God’s way of helping us to grow in
love for others.
We have been called to go out, give witness and bear fruit
like those tenants to whom the vineyard was given when others failed to bear
fruit.
May we go out and tell the whole world that God is love and
that God has loved us in others and that love is the purpose and source of our
call to serve the world.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy, now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:10)
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