＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Genesis 37: 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a*

 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other children,

for he was the son of his old age and he had a coat with long sleeves made for him.  His brothers who saw that their father loved him more than he loved them, hated him and could no longer speak to him in a friendly way. His brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem,  and Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the flock at Shechem; come along, I’ll send you to them.” Joseph replied, “Here I am.”

The man said, “They have gone from here, for I heard them say: Let’s go to Dothan!” So Joseph went off after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

 They saw him in the distance and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.  They said to one another, “Here comes the specialist in dreams!  Now’s the time! Let’s kill him and throw him into a well. We’ll say a wild animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what his dreams were all about!”  But Reuben heard this and tried to save him from their hands  saying, “Let us not kill him; shed no blood! Throw him in this well in the wilderness, but do him no violence.” This he said to save him from them and take him back to his father.

 So as soon as Joseph arrived, they stripped him of his long-sleeved coat that he wore  and then took him and threw him in the well. Now the well was empty, without water.

 They were sitting for a meal when they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with spices, balm and myrrh, which they were taking down to Egypt.  Judah then said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and hiding his blood?  Come! We’ll sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother and our own flesh!” His brothers agreed to this.

 So when the Midianite merchants came along they pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the well. For twenty pieces of silver they sold Joseph to the Midianites, who took him with them to Egypt.

 

Ps 105: 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46

Listen to another example: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a hole for the winepress, built a watchtower, leased the vineyard to tenants and then went to a distant country.   When harvest time came, the land­owner sent his servants to the tenants to collect his share of the harvest.   But the ten­ants seized his servants, beat one, killed another and stoned another.

Again the owner sent more servants, but they were treated in the same way.  Finally, he sent his son, thinking: ‘They will respect my son.’   But when the tenants saw the son, they thought: ‘This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let us kill him and his inheritance will be ours.’   So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

 Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do with the tenants when he comes?”   They said to him, “He will bring those evil to an evil end, and lease the vineyard to others who will pay him in due time.”

 And Jesus replied, “Have you never read what the Scriptures say? The stone which the build­ers rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing; and we marvel at it. Therefore I say to you: the kingdom of heaven will be taken from you and given to a people who will yield a harvest.   (Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will ground to dust on whom it falls.)”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they realized that Jesus was referring to them. They would have arrested him, but they were afraid of the crowd who regarded him as a prophet.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Jesus must have thought that he has failed in his mission. He had seen that Judah was not like Galilee and the cheering crowds that gathered in his province were nowhere to be found in Jerusalem. His words, his miracles, and his compassionate acts failed to change the hearts of those who thought they have the control of the situation, even the control of God.

In this parable of the ungrateful tenants, Jesus reinterpreted the prophecy where God lamented for his vineyard, Israel, that did not bear fruit. But his listeners  did not understand. They forgot the fact that they were only stewards not the master.

Indeed, the son was killed just outside the city of God. But the Master did not send his great army to raze everything to the ground. Rather, he would go on to the end showing his true face, giving his people the chance to change.

That is the story of the Gospel. The same story is being told even now because we still live as if we own everything. The Lord is giving us a chance for conversion. The world is the Lord’s. We are but his stewards.