PRI Reflections on Scripture • 6-3-24 - Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs

Finding God In Our Hearts with Msgr. Don Fischer

Gospel Mark 12:1-12
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture passage:
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?"
They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.
Reflection The frightening thing about this passage is that we begin to see that the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders knew what they were doing. They saw in Jesus a truth that they knew they should be listening to, but they refused to because they had invested so much in a way of life that was comfortable and easy for them, that they could not let go of it.
And when they realize that Jesus is addressing these words to them, that they are guilty, and so they simply went away, staying in the shame that they felt.
Closing Prayer Father, over and over again you show us in subtle ways, and sometimes not so subtle, where we are wrong, where we are off. Give us the kind of openness to being found out in a sense. There's nothing wrong with admitting that we have made mistakes. There's something terribly wrong with not facing them. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.