Mary Mother of the Church

St. Justin, martyr 

 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

2 Peter 1:2-7

 May grace and peace abound in you

through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and piety. First the knowledge of the One who called us through his own Glory and Might, by which we were given the most extraordinary and precious prom­ises. 

Through them you share in the divine nature, after repelling the corruption and evil desires of this world.  So, strive with the greatest determination and increase your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with moderation, moderation with constancy, constancy with piety, piety with mutual affection, mutual affection with charity.

 

Ps 91:1-2, 14-15b, 15c-16

In you, my God, I place my trust. 

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

 Mark 12:1-12

Using parables, Jesus went on to say, “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press and built a watch tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenants and went abroad.

 In due time he sent a servant to receive from the tenants his share of the fruit. But they seized the servant, struck him and sent him back empty-handed. Again the man sent another servant.

They also struck him on the head and treated him shame­fully. He sent another and they killed him. In the same way they treated many others; some they struck and others they killed. One was still left, his beloved son. And so, last of all, he sent him to the tenants, for he said: ‘They will respect my son.’

 But those tenants said to one another: ‘This is the one who is to inherit the vineyard. Let’s kill him and the property will be ours.’ So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. Now, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

And Jesus added, “Have you not read this text of the Scriptures: The stone which the build­ers rejected has become the keystone. This was the Lord’s doing; and we marvel at it.  They want­ed to arrest him for they realized that Jesus meant this parable for them, but they were afraid of the crowd. So they left him and went away.

 

Gospel Reflection：

Our life, the many blessings and graces we have, the many gifts, talents, and abilities we possess – all these are gifts given to us by the Father. But while they are truly our own, they ultimately belong to him.

We are simply tenants, caretakers of his creation. And we are called to be wise stewards of these gifts. We are meant to make use of the them wisely, to better ourselves, our fellowmen and women and by doing so, contribute our small share to the betterment of God’s created world.

Forgetfulness, sadly, is the lot of all of us human beings. We forget that we are but stewards, not owners; we are but servants, not masters. And the time will come when we will be asked for a reckoning of what we have done with the gifts that have been given to us.

How do I spend my time? Do I spend it wisely? Do I fritter it away in useless distractions or, worse, idle and uncharitable talk? Sit down and take a good look at how you spend this most precious of gifts God has given you: time.