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Gospel Reading for June 03, 2024 – Mark 12: 1-12
IT IS A SHAME
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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The Church celebrates today the Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and 21 Ugandan companions who were protomartyrs of Black Africa. Indeed, upon continuing the mission of Christ to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28: 19-20) so many had to die, starting from St. Stephen. But, it is also the blood of our martyrs that made the faith so much more alive and brought it to such heights today. IT IS A SHAME that there are those of us who, due to laziness do not attend mass on Sundays or holydays of obligation. There are only 52 Sundays or 53 Sundays in a leap year and 3 holydays of obligation (becomes less when they fall on a Sunday) or roughly 15% of all the days of the year. IT IS A SHAME that we receive graces from God every second of 365 days, and are unthoughtful of the great sacrifice of his Son Jesus, whose blood had to be shed so we may all be saved and enjoy life in eternity.
St. Charles Lwanga and all other martyrs, pray for us!
