Friday, October 02, 2020

Reflection for Sunday October 4, Twenty- seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Matthew 21:33-43


Gospel: Matthew 21:33-43
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: "Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. 

Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" 

They answered him, "He will put those wret-ched men to a wret-ched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times." Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes? Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

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Reflection:
In what instance/s in our life does Jesus knocks in our hearts? It’s when He wants to get closer to us, Jesus does this to us in so many ways. For example through a friend who may want to share the words of Jesus to us. It may be through a written commentary about life and our faith that may deeply awaken us. It may be through important events in our life such as sickness or even problems. 

Some of us may listen to this knocks of Jesus and we open our hearts to Him and change our lives for the better. But many of us may not listen and may not even give careful reflection about this. Thus, we move on with our lives as if nothing significant has happened to us. We continue to distance ourselves from Jesus or we continue to treat Jesus like a medicine that we only take when we are in need. 

In our gospel for this Sunday Jesus gives us the Parable of the tenants. The tenants were allowed by the landlord to take care of his vineyard. When it was harvest time already of course the landlord was naturally asking for his share because the land was his property.  

So the landlord sent two batches of servants but the tenants refused the demand of the landlord by killing some of the servants that he sent them. Finally the landlord sent his only son thinking that the tenants would now listen to him but they killed him as well. 

The greedy tenants in the gospel are the chief priest and the elders, the landlord is God. The servants that God sent were the prophets and the only son is Jesus whom they have killed as well. The reason they did this to the prophets and Jesus is they disliked their call of renewal and repentance. 

In some ways we also take the role of the greedy tenants because we continue to greedily love this world more than Jesus. Many of us may have already fallen in love with what this temporal world offers us that we refuse Jesus' demand of repentance. We continue to refuse to listen to His voice that asks us that we let go of all of our sinfulness and worldliness.  
 
Nevertheless, Jesus is still persistently knocking at our hearts. Patiently waiting for us to open it so that He can come in, cleanse all our sins and take control of our lives. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

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