Mk 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 the fruit of the vineyard. 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 beat up 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 is 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.
REFLECTION
In the garden of Eden, Satan, disguised as a talking snake, entices Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, promising them that “you will be like gods,” a false promise.
Paradoxically, though, it had always been God’s plan to share his divinity with the creatures he had made. But this gift of his was to be received as a gift, and not wrested from him by stealth. That is why Adam and Eve’s underhanded attempt to snatch at divinity was such a miserable failure.
But God did not give up on us. He kept his dream of making us gods, provided we graciously accepted this as a gift—a gift made possible by our becoming one with his Son in obedient love. That is why, in the last book of the Bible, we hear Christ say: “I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne “(Rev 3:21). All this is alluded to in the mysterious words of Peter’s Letter contained in today’s first reading, “you share in the divine nature.”
Yes, our enthronement has already begun.
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