“He began to speak to them 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.” (Mark 12:1-12 NABRE)
Our Lord often tries to reach us in various different ways and pursues us each and every day. Jesus constantly calls to us by speaking to us in our hearts, through others, in the situations of our lives, and through numerous other means.
Yet, how often do we reject or ignore the Lord when we hear His call?
Maybe we don’t even do this on purpose, yet in our distraction we push off or lessen the time we spend with God. We tend to offer ourselves excuses for neglecting our relationship with Him.
In today’s Gospel we learn that even when we do this, the Lord continues to lovingly seek after us.
May we recognize when we fail to live for the Lord and to foster our relationship with Him. May we humbly acknowledge our shortcomings and resolve to always respond to the Lord when He calls to us and reaches out to us.
Unlike the tenants in the Scripture passage, may we always readily receive the Lord into our lives!!
Much food for thought. Thank you!