Monday, June 4, 2018
TODAY'S REFLECTION- MONDAY- 9TH WEEK- ORDINARY TIME
St. Francis Caracciolo, Confessor- ( 4-10= Arbour Week: Sanitation and Environmental Week; Rotation Week)
2 Peter 1:2-7/Psalm 90:1-2,14-16/Mark 12:1-12
BE A RESPONSIBLE STEWARD
Beloved, St. Peter in our today's first reading, urges us to equip our lives with virtues, not vices. He prays that we may have more grace and peace and that by divine power, we may attain goodness, faith, understanding, self- control, devotion, patience, kindness, love, etc. How many of these virtues do I already have?
Friends, Jesus tells us the parable of the Wicked Tenants, in our today's Gospel reading. The Owner of the vineyard stands for God. The Vineyard is Israel, the people of God. The Vinedresser/Tenants represent the leaders of the people of Israel.
The owner of the vineyard (God), sends servants (prophets) upon servants, time and again to collect proceeds from his vineyard, but they maltreated them. He finally sent his own Son (Jesus Christ, the heir, the cornerstone/keystone), thinking they would respect him, but he was taken outside and shamefully maltreated and killed.
God trustfully, generously and patiently gave us all that we are using now (as caretakers/stewards, not owners), yet we don't want God to get his due. The Tenants thought they would kill the owner's son and then own everything. How can we kill Jesus in our lives, community, offices, workplaces, churches, and own anything? Jesus is the centre of our lives and our whole being. We are to build our lives on Jesus, the cornestoner/unavoidable/keystone. To try to kill or ignore Jesus means we are calling for the wrath of God. We are heading towards total disaster, failure and misery. Why do we not want to give people what is their due? Why do we want to kill others and take their property? Let us pray for the grace to strive to live good lives. We also pray for the love and fear of God in our lives, so that we can properly take care of what God has given us, e.g. the environment. We pray for those of us who want to kill in order to get what we want. BE BLESSED.
Fr. Gaa (0206854323/0240308878)