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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider The stone that the builders rejected

The stone that the builders rejected

Published Jun 4, 2023 09:41 pm

REFLECTIONS TODAY


This parable can also be retitled, “The Parable of the Generous Farmer.” The farmer symbolizes God the Father, sowing love in planting a vineyard, ensuring its growth by digging a pit for the winepress, monitoring safety and productivity by building a watchtower and a winepress, and entrusting them to the care of others by leasing it to tenants. Jesus must have used the parable of the Wicked Tenants to portray the reality of the Father’s love for humanity and the ungrateful response of the human family to this great love. In the Gospel account, Jesus must have felt what awaits him: to be rejected, beaten, crushed, and killed as a consequence of his mission—thus the emphasis on what the tenants would do to the son of the landowner. How open are we to welcome his only-begotten Son, “the stone that the builders rejected” (v 10), as the messenger of God’s love for us? How do we respond to God’s great love for us and for all creation?

FIRST READING • Tb 1:3; 2:1a-8

I, Tobit, have walked all the days of my life on the paths of truth and righteousness. I performed many charitable works for my kinsmen and my people who had been deported with me to Nineveh, in Assyria.
On our festival of Pentecost, the feast of Weeks, a fine dinner was prepared for me, and I reclined to eat. The table was set for me, and when many different dishes were placed before me, I said to my son Tobiah: “My son, go out and try to find a poor man from among our kinsmen exiled here in Nineveh. If he is a sincere worshiper of God, bring him back with you, so that he can share this meal with me. Indeed, son, I shall wait for you to come back.”
Tobiah went out to look for some poor kinsman of ours. When he returned he exclaimed, “Father!” I said to him, “What is it, son?” He answered, “Father, one of our people has been murdered! His body lies in the market place where he was just strangled!” I sprang to my feet, leaving the dinner untouched; and I carried the dead man from the street and put him in one of the rooms, so that I might bury him after sunset. Returning to my own quarters, I washed myself and ate my food in sorrow. I was reminded of the oracle pronounced by the prophet Amos against Bethel: “All your festivals shall be turned into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.” And I wept. Then at sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried him… *Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]); Website: [http://www.stpauls.ph](http://www.stpauls.ph).*

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