NOTES for Mat 21:33-42
33 Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: |
34 And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. |
35 And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. |
36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. |
37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. |
38 But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. |
39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. |
40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? |
41 They say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. |
42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? |
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Is this parable only about the killing of the prophets and of the Son of God Himself? Is there not a direct rebuke to our conscience here? Yes, of course, because everything written in the Gospel is addressed to me personally. So what is my guilt?
Remember some occasion when you received the Holy Mysteries of Christ and it was especially full of grace. Remember how your heart opened wide to receive God and every person, every single one: relatives and loved ones, those who had offended you, and even the poor on the church steps. How you wanted to kiss everyone and say a warm, gentle word. How you returned from church and looked at the world with different eyes, as if you had fallen in love and learned that your feeling was returned. Has that ever happened?
At such moments it appears to us, oh, how kind I have become, how I love everyone... But in reality, it is simply that the Lord has sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into your heart through Communion in the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
And what happens next? A day passes, then another; cares, problems, and other things pile up, and little by little we begin to grow irritated. The same people whom we loved so much are already saying unbearable foolish things; the impudence of the poor somehow becomes especially unpleasant; and thoughts come: after all, why does he or she not work?! And so on, and on, and on. So we have killed the Son of God within ourselves.
Readings for 21 March 2025
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