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Today March 5, 2021, Friday of the Second Week of Lenten Season. Today’s first reading is from Genesis 37: 3-4; 12-13a, 17b-28 and Gospel Reading is from Matthew 21: 33-43; 45-46.
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Genesis 37: 3-4; 12-13a; 17b -28.
Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long-ornamented tunic. When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his brothers, they hated him so much that they could not say a kind word to him. One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem, Israel said to Joseph, “Are your brothers not tending our flocks at Shechem? Come and I will send you to them.”
So, Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another: “Here comes that dreamer! Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We will see then what comes to his dreams.”
But when Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: “We must not take his life.” Then Reuben said, “Do not shed blood! Throw him into this cistern in the wilderness; but do not lay a hand on him.” His purpose was to save him from their hands and restore him to his father. So, when Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the long-ornamented tunic he had on; then they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
Then they sat down to eat. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead their camels laden with gum, balm, and resin to be taken down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers: “What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? Come, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
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Responsorial Psalm.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
When the LORD called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
Gospel Acclamation.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son;
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
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Matthew 21: 33-43; 45-46.

Jesus said a parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built 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 wretched men to a wretched 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 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. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you Lord, Jesus Christ.
Dear God’s beloved children, Jesus’ depiction of the Jewish nation as God’s vineyard would have been a familiar concept to his listeners. The details were similar to those of Isaiah’s parable of the house of Israel, the vineyard of the Lord, set apart and cherished by God for his particular favor (Isaiah 5: 1-7). The story of the wicked tenants is an allegory of salvation history. God, the owner of the vineyard, left his people in the care and protection of religious and political leaders. Their responsibility was to bring the people to fruitfulness in knowing, loving, and obeying God so they might continue to enjoy his love and protection. For time to time God sent his prophets to remind the people of this purpose, but the prophets were abused, rejected, and even murdered. Finally, God sent his Son, but he too was reviled and put to death.
Jesus’ mission on earth was to form the church, a new people of God. United by submission and obedience to the Father’s will, they would live out the fullness of God’s life and love, and would one day enjoy the eternal inheritance promised to all the faithful. We are often like the tenants who sought by devious means to obtain the owner’s inheritance, and thus become our own lord and master. There is a pride in the human heart that spurs us to take control of our lives and find fulfilment apart from God and obedience to him.
God’s earnest desire is that the members of his church listen to and commit their lives to his Son as they hear God’s word in prayer, scripture, and celebration of the liturgy. It is only through Jesus and in union with him that we can recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. As we hear his voice and turn to God, we will “have no anxiety about anything” and our minds will be raised to heavenly realities, enabling us to think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious” (Philippians 4: 6,8).
Thank God in prayer for the love he offers you in Jesus and for the intimacy to which he calls you as a member of his church. Ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life so that living in him and for him you may be faithful to God, know the peace and glory of his favor and protection, and return to him the fruit that is his due.

Friday, July 16, 2021
Freedom From Condemnation
Friday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” Matthew 12:1–2

When Moses gave the Ten Commandments to the people, there was a prohibition against working on the Sabbath. The Third Commandment said, in part, that “you shall not do any work” on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:10). By the time of Jesus, the Pharisees had added much commentary to this law and expanded it to include as many as 39 different forms of work that they believed was forbidden. Included in their list were the practices of harvesting and milling of grain. For that reason, when the Pharisees saw that the disciples were picking heads of grain and rubbing the grain off the husks so that they could eat it, the Pharisees condemned them for violating what they interpreted to be an offense against the Third Commandment.

The first thing we can note from this passage is that the disciples were hungry. They were exceptionally devoted to Jesus and had been traveling with Him from town to town so that He could preach the Gospel. They had given up occupation, home, family and income so as to be singly devoted to Jesus and His mission. And as a result of this, they were living in poverty and relying upon the generosity of others. It is in this context that they chose to eat the most humble of foods: grain that they picked as they walked. They didn’t complain that there wasn’t a hot meal waiting for them at their destination. They were accepting of the many long journeys by foot that they made. They were okay with the fact that they did not get to sleep in their own bed every night. But they did have the basic human need for food, so they picked this grain as they walked to fulfill this basic need of hunger.

Though there are many lessons we can learn from this passage, one clear lesson is that of the temptation to judge and condemn others. When we fall into the trap of judging others, there are a few things that are common. First, judging and condemning often is based on perceived wrongs that are inflated and exaggerated. The Pharisees clearly inflated and exaggerated this “sin” of the disciples. In our lives, judgmentalness almost always makes the perceived sin of another far more serious than it is, if it is sin at all.

Another common temptation that flows from a judgmental and condemning heart is the failure to even understand the condemned party. In this case above, the Pharisees did not even inquire into the reason the disciples were picking and eating grain. They didn’t ask if they had been without food for some time or how long they had been traveling. It didn’t matter to them that they were hungry, and most likely, very hungry. So also with us, it is common that when we judge and condemn another, we arrive at our verdict without even seeking to understand the situation.

Lastly, it needs to be said that judging others is not our right. Doing so is usually reckless and caused by our own self-centeredness. God did not give the Pharisees the authority to expand the Third Commandment into 39 forbidden practices, nor did He give them the authority to apply those interpretations to the perceived actions of the disciples. And God does not give us the authority to judge others either. If another is clearly caught in a cycle of objectively grave sin, we must do all we can to help draw them out of that sin. But even in that case, we have no right to judge or condemn.

Reflect, today, upon any tendency you have toward being judgmental and condemning of others. If you see this tendency within yourself, spend time thinking about the Pharisees. Their self-righteousness was ugly and damaging. The negative example they set should inspire us to turn away from such acts of condemnation and to reject those temptations the moment they come.

My divine Judge of All, You and You alone know the heart, and You and You alone are capable of acting as Judge. Please exercise Your authority in my life so that I can perceive my own sin. As You do, please also free me from the tendency to judge and condemn. Fill me, instead, with a heart full of mercy and truth toward all. Jesus, I trust in You.

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