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| “Red Vineyards at Arles” by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888 |
Readings and Commentary: [3]
Reading 1: 2 Peter 1:2-7
Beloved:
May grace and peace be yours in
abundance
through knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has bestowed on us
everything that makes for life and
devotion,
through the knowledge of him
who called us by his own glory and
power.
Through these, he has bestowed on
us
the precious and very great
promises,
so that through them you may come
to share in the divine nature,
after escaping from the corruption
that is in the world
because of evil desire. For this
very reason,
make every effort to supplement
your faith with virtue,
virtue with knowledge, knowledge
with self-control,
self-control with endurance,
endurance with devotion,
devotion with mutual affection,
mutual affection with love.
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Commentary on 2 Pt 1:2-7
This is the brief introduction to
the Second Letter of Peter, similar in form and language to the introductions
from Jude and the First Letter of Peter. The book was admitted to the
canon of the New Testament late because it is thought to have been written
under a pseudonym by someone other than the Apostle Peter. This first section
set the stage for the principal thrust of the letter which is Christian
knowledge, which should arm them against false teachers, specifically those who
doubted that there would be a “second coming” of Christ.
The author points out that
knowledge is the key to understanding and realizing the gift of the divine
promises of Christ. He then goes on to present a gradation of qualities
beginning with faith that leads at last to Christian love, the ultimate
expression of Christ’s gift in the world.
CCC: 2 Pt 1:3-4 1996; 2 Pt 1:4 460, 1129, 1265, 1692, 1721, 1812
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 91:1-2,
14-15b, 15c-16
R. (see 2b) In
you, my God, I place my trust.
You who dwell in the shelter of the
Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the
Almighty,
Say to the Lord, “My refuge and my
fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
R. In you, my God, I place my
trust.
Because he clings to me, I will
deliver him;
I will set him on high because he
acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will
answer him;
I will be with him in distress.
R. In you, my God, I place my
trust.
I will deliver him and glorify him;
with length of days I will gratify
him
and will show him my salvation.
R. In you, my God, I place my
trust.
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Commentary on Ps 91:1-2, 14-15b, 15c-16
The hymn of thanksgiving that is
Psalm 91 gives praise to God for the salvation of his people. He saves those
who believe in him from distress and fear.
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Gospel: 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.
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Commentary on Mk 12:1-12
In the first part of the Gospel we
hear the Parable of the Vineyard. Since this story is directed to the chief priests
and scribes, we understand that the vineyard represents the Kingdom of God and
the tenants are the Sanhedrin. They should have been working on behalf of God,
but instead they misused their power and disregarded the Prophets, killing
some, beating others. And when the son of the owner comes and is killed, Jesus
prophesies his own death.
The final section of the reading
uses the image found in Psalm 118;
23-24, “the stone rejected.” Jesus uses this scripture quote to
drive home his point: that the Sanhedrin had completely missed God’s intent,
and that the one they rejected, Jesus himself, the Messiah, was to be the
cornerstone of the New Jerusalem, God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven.
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Reflection:
There is an ongoing struggle, even
within our Christian ranks, to discover how best to follow Jesus’ teachings.
Some argue that “I don’t need a church. I am a spiritual person and I read the
Bible. I am a good person.” We would not argue with the last statement. There
are many people who are good; look at Gandhi who was a very good person. An
individual, doing their best to follow their impulses to do “good,” is not what
Christianity is about. It is the sum of its members responding together to
challenge the status quo and transform the world, driven by their faith and
belief that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God, and it is his example
Christians follow.
Christ’s mission was not to
introduce an individual form of self-improvement. He came so that salvation
might be given to those who could find the strength to follow him. An
individual doing “good” things, reading the bible, praying to God, has found a selfish
expression of faith that will make them feel good, and not require any effort
to change, either what they do (they have excluded from their circle anyone who
would challenge them), or how they interpret “good” from what they read. That
individual might rationalize excellent reasons for rejecting “organized
religion.” Most commonly heard are things like: “I don’t need them to know
what’s right or how to pray,” or “They are all a bunch of hypocrites.” It is
like a soldier saying: “I know that our side is right in going to war, but I’ll
fight when the enemies are at my front door,” or “Soldiers are supposed to be
brave; the ones I met were all scared.”
The expression of faith lived in
the world is something that Christ calls us to. It is difficult to do what he
asks, and if we find ourselves comfortable in the pew, content with the faith,
we probably need to fire ourselves up. The Second Letter of Peter pushes us
hard in that direction, and the Gospel reminds us that when we push as he wants
us to, others will almost certainly push back (“So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.”).
Our prayer today is that we will
not be complacent in the faith we share; that we will take that faith boldly
into the world and demonstrate the love Christ calls us to share as our badge
of Christianity.
Pax
[1]
The picture used is “Red Vineyards at Arles” by
Vincent Van Gogh, 1888.
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible
with the exception of the Psalm and its response which were developed by the
International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is
not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
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