Monday 3 June 2013
Gospel
Mark
12:1-12
Jesus went on to speak to the chief priests,
the scribes and the elders in parables: ‘A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it
round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it
to tenants and went abroad. When the time came, he sent a servant to the
tenants to collect from them his share of the produce from the vineyard. But
they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent
another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully.
And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they
thrashed some and killed the rest. He had still someone left: his beloved son.
He sent him to them last of all. “They will respect my son” he said. But those
tenants said to each other, “This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and
the inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him and killed him and threw him
out of the vineyard. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come
and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not
read this text of scripture:
It was the stone rejected by the builders
that became the keystone.
This was the Lord’s doing
and it is wonderful to see?
And they would have liked to arrest him,
because they realised that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid
of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away.
The Acceptable fruit of Your Life
Originally
addressed to the chief priests, we can apply this parable to the Church. God
demands fruits - justice, humility, simplicity and most of all sincerity in our
love and service of one another. Let us apply to our own lives. Your life
situation is the vineyard. Everything you have, your life, your family, your
community, your work place, your neighbourhood, is the vineyard. God has given
it to you on trust. It is not yours. It belongs to God and he demands his share
of the vineyard. Are you producing the fruits acceptable to God? First, this is
a life free from sin: deception, stealing, sexual immorality, bribery and
corruption, oppression of others. Secondly, it is a life of love and
responsibility for yourself, your spouse and family, for your community and
neighbourhood. Do you fulfil the demands of God made through the Church and the
Gospel?
Tuesday 4 June 2013
Gospel
Mark
12:13-17
The chief priests and the scribes and the
elders sent to Jesus some Pharisees and some Herodians to catch him out in what
he said. These came and said to him, ‘Master, we know you are an honest man,
that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you,
and that you teach the way of God in all honesty. Is it permissible to pay
taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, yes or no?’ Seeing through their
hypocrisy he said to them, ‘Why do you set this trap for me? Hand me a denarius
and let me see it.’ They handed him one and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose
name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they told him. Jesus said to them, ‘Give back to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’ This reply took them
completely by surprise.
Give to God what is God’s
The Pharisees and Herodians were mutual enemies but they come
together against Jesus. Their question is highly sensitive in view of the Roman
occupation and the hostility of the Jews towards them. Whatever answer Jesus
gives, they think, he will meet aggression from either the people or the
Romans. Jesus sees through their hypocrisy and their trickery. The coin is
Caesar’s, then give it back, he says. He adds; give to God what belongs to God.
Everything belongs to God. Through selfishness and sin, men have robbed the
earth from him. Injustice, exploitation, poverty, sickness, and suffering of
every kind are everywhere. Men have spoiled the earth through pollution. To
give to God what is his, is to renew society through love, justice and peace
and to preserve the beauty of creation for the next generation. Does renewal
begin with you or are you part of the problem?
Wednesday 5 June 2013
Gospel
Mark
12:18-27
Some Sadducees – who deny that there is a
resurrection – came to him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we
have it from Moses in writing, if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no
child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Now
there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no
children. The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children;
with the third it was the same, and none of the seven left any children. Last
of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again,
whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?’
Jesus said to them, ‘Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you
understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from
the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven.
Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in
the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but
of the living. You are very much mistaken.’
Life
in God’s family
Imagining that the future life is an
extension of this one, the Sadducees wanted to make it look ridiculous. Jesus
tells them and us that life with God is not like life on earth. He does not
specify. It would be foolish to try to imagine it. “No eye has seen. No ear has
heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man to imagine what things God has
prepared for those who love him”(1Cor.2:9l). God, a loving Father like no
father on earth, will bring his plan for us to perfection. We will be like his
Son in every respect. It will be the family of God. We should prepare for it
now by surrendering ourselves to the Father. He will work in us through his
Spirit to make us, even now, the images of his Son. Does the image of Jesus
shine in you?
Thursday 6 June 2013
Gospel
Mark
12:28-34
One of the scribes came up to Jesus and put a
question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This
is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your
neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’ The scribe
said to him, ‘Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true: that he is one
and there is no other. To love him with all your heart, with all your
understanding and strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself, this is far
more important than any holocaust or sacrifice.’ Jesus, seeing how wisely he
had spoken, said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ And after that no
one dared to question him any more.
As You Treat others, so You Treat of God
Christianity has grown out of Judaism. The answer to the scribe’s
question is the prayer the Jews said daily. Jesus will bring this to
fulfilment. God is one, but he is also three. God is the community of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. From this Triune God we have received everything. In the
Spirit, we are recreated. We share the life of God in Jesus. Jesus has brought
the second law to fulfilment. Love one another as I have loved you. He puts no
limit to how we are to love others. He has identified himself with poorest and
the least in the community. ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat, thirsty and
you gave me to drink’. Love of God comes first but we can only do this by
loving our sister and brother. Do you realise that love of your neighbour is
your love of God?
Friday 7 June 2013
Gospel
Luke
15:3-7
Jesus spoke this parable to the scribes and
Pharisees:
‘What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it?
And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then,
when he got home, call together his friends and neighbours? “Rejoice with me,”
he would say “I have found my sheep that was lost.” In the same way, I tell
you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over
ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance.’
God’s Grief and Your Sin
We have heard this parable many times. However,
we must begin to see how precious we are to the Good Shepherd. No shepherd
wants to lose any of his sheep. Jesus doesn’t want to lose you either. It is
not for any selfish motive but he considers you so highly. He knows what
eternal life with God is like. He wants you to enjoy this life, at any cost –
to himself. To walk away and sin will not make him angry but profoundly sad.
This is because as he said on the Cross, “They do not know what they are
doing.” The heart of Jesus like the parable is only an image of the reality,
which is that Jesus wants you to enjoy life with God. He values you so much
that he would rather die on a Cross, than that you lose life with God. What is
your response?
Saturday 8 June 2013
Gospel
Luke
2:41-51
Every year the parents of Jesus used to go to
Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they
went up for the feast as usual. When they were on their way home after the
feast, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it.
They assumed he was with the caravan, and it was only after a day’s journey
that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When
they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.
Three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the
doctors, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard
him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when
they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have, you done this to
us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’
‘Why were you looking for me?’ he replied ‘Did you not know that I must
be busy with my Father’s affairs?’ But
they did not understand what he meant.
He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their
authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.
Discovering
God’s Will in daily Life
We can easily live life on the surface. Life is a round of
activities and we do them. Mary and Joseph had been to the feast in Jerusalem Temple Jerusalem and not in Nazareth
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