The
Darkness of Selfishness
Father James Swanson, LC
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
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 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.
Introductory Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me
to open my heart to your inspirations. Help me see that you want to
speak to me through todays Gospel.
Petition: Lord, grant me a deeper humility, the
type of humility that seeks you in all that I do, and not
myself.
1. The Stone Rejected. Just a few days before, a
great crowd had acclaimed Jesus as the Messiah as he triumphantly
entered Jerusalem. However, the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees
and Herodians see Jesus as a threat to their own position of
leadership. Though they have not yet let it be known to the people,
they have decided to reject Jesus and are already plotting together
to kill him. In the meantime, they are pretending to be making a
thorough investigation, to find the truth about what the crowds
have acclaimed that Jesus is the Messiah. What they are really
doing is trying to ruin him, to catch him in some mistake, so as to
denounce him as a fraud before the crowds. They seek to break the
peoples support for him. They practice the kind of toxic politics
we are so familiar with today: Instead of seeking the common good
or the truth, they only seek themselves and their own glory.
2. The Cornerstone. Jesus sees what his detractors
are trying to do. He tells them a series of parables, hinting that
if they continue to oppose him, they will lose. In the parable of
the vineyard he tells them that they can kill him; but even so they
will still lose. Then he quotes Psalm 118, comparing himself with
the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone. What Jesus is
hinting at goes beyond just the quoted verses. The whole psalm
which Jesus enemies would have known from memory tells of Yahweh
fighting for his faithful one. The faithful one will not be
abandoned to death, and the enemies of Yahweh will be defeated. It
is as if Jesus throws down a challenge: You cannot beat me. Even
if you kill me as you are planning to do, my Heavenly Father will
not abandon me to death. He will fight for me and I will become the
cornerstone. You would do better to join me.
3. Jesus Is True Progress. Jesus won. He continues
to win today. His enemies still insist on smashing themselves to
bits. When we survey history, we see what becomes of one group
after another that oppose Jesus and his Church. They disappear into
oblivion. Jesus is the future of the whole world. He won. He
continues to win and will win in the end. Since Jesus is the future
of the whole world, progress can only mean progress toward him,
toward the civilization of justice and love he wishes to establish.
Those who seek their own special interests are seeking a return to
the past, to the Dark Age before Jesus. They seek to return to when
humanity tried not just to know what was good and evil (eating the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), but to DECIDE
it to be gods themselves.
Dialogue with Christ: Lord, help me to be humble.
Help me to accept you as Messiah and Savior and as my future. So
many times, instead of seeking you, I seek myself. I try to
influence everything so that what is good and true is defined
according to my will rather than yours. Like so many political
groups and special interest groups that are based on selfishness, I
risk being broken on the cornerstone. Help me not fight against
you. Please be patient with me and help me to change.
Resolution: In what area of my life is it hardest
for me to accept the way God has organized things? Where do I most
want to set up a system opposed to Gods plan in order to get my
way? My resolution today has to be one that helps tear down this
structure of sin in my life.