June 4, 2012 (Monday)

Be Blessed!

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12:1-12.

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders 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.

Commentary of the day
Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407), priest at Antioch then Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church
11th homily on the 2nd letter to the Corinthians

"He had one other to send, a beloved son"

«Christ has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation» (2Cor 5,18). Paul brings out the apostles' greatness by showing us what kind of ministry has been given them, while showing us at the same time the love with which God has loved us. When men had refused to listen to the one he had sent, God did not give vent to his rage, he did not spurn them but went on calling them on his own account and through the apostles...

God has put into our mouths «the message of reconciliation» (v.19). And so we come, not for some difficult work, but to make everyone friends of God. Since they have not listened, the Lord tells us to continue to urge them until they come to faith. Hence Paul adds: «We are ambassadors of Christ; it is God himself who is appealing through us. We implore you in Christ's name: be reconciled to God» (v.20)...

What could be compared to so great a love as this? When we had repaid his blessings with insults, far from punishing us he gave us his Son to reconcile us with himself. Yet, far from wanting to be reconciled, men put him to death. God sent other ambassadors to urge them and, after that, himself became their suppliant. Always it was he who appealed: «Be reconciled to God». He did not say: «Reconcile God to yourselves». It was not he who turned us away, it was you who refused to become his friends. Can God experience feelings of hatred?