Daily Gospel Reflection
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June 5, 2023
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.
Our daughter’s 2020 high school graduation was not what we expected when her senior year began. Instead of hundreds marching to pomp and circumstance, three families sat in our backyard, watching a live stream on TV, spaced appropriately “Here” apart, cheering along with graduates in neighboring yards. We laughed, beaming with pride, and embraced the unexpected celebration as uniquely wonderful.
In a similar twist, Jesus showed up in a world full of expectations and interpretations of deliverance. He was not the anticipated political or military leader who would overturn Roman oppression. He did not neatly obey the time-honored religious codes of the chief priests, scribes, and elders. He shook things up, demonstrating authority, wisdom, and deity in surprising ways that quietly subverted the unhealthy parts of tradition and expectation.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus confronts the religious authorities head-on. Their history had been rejecting and mistreating the truth-telling prophets who sought to turn the hearts of God’s people back to him.
The parable he tells hints that he, too, will be rejected and killed. And then he gives a reminder about a stone mentioned in Psalm 118, rejected by builders, but like him, the cornerstone of God’s work in the world.
I would like to say I would have been different than the scribes, immediately recognizing Jesus as my long-anticipated hope, but I suspect it’s too easy to cling to our ideas and our “this is the way it has always been” mindset. Because we have expectations, we can often try to make Jesus serve our systems, follow our ways, and fit our preferences, to our detriment.
Today, may we loosen our grip on our expectations and fully embrace Christ—his words, sacrifice, salvation, love, beauty, and surprising kingdom. When we do, we will surely experience something unexpected but uniquely wonderful.
Prayer
Almighty Father, giver of all that is good, hear us as we turn to you in prayer. Help us not to be like the tenants of the vineyard whose hearts and minds were full of jealousy and selfish desires. Help us this day to have our minds and hearts filled with the fruits your Holy Spirit so that we, working with your Son, might bring about a fitting harvest. Amen.
Saint of the Day

St. Boniface is known as the “Apostle of Germany” for his tremendous missionary efforts spreading the faith through that region of Europe during the Dark Ages.
He was born in England in 680, and baptized with the name Winfrid. At the age of 5, he had his first encounter with educated monks when several visited his home. When he heard them speak, he knew he wanted an education as well, and his parents let him go to school at a nearby monastery. When he exhausted that place’s resources for learning, he moved to a bigger monastery, and in time, was named director of the school there.
He was a gifted teacher and had an attractive personality, and was ordained a priest at the age of 30. He felt a calling from God to spread the faith as a missionary, and received permission to travel to mainland Europe, which was dominated by pagan religions. He left in the spring of 716 with two others, but immediately discovered that the rulers of the area where he landed were actively persecuting Christians.
He returned to his monastery in England, but still felt called to serve as a missionary--though the monks there tried to elect him abbot so he would stay. He traveled to Rome to have this calling confirmed by the pope, who gave him an official commission and changed his name to Boniface. From there he traveled to Germany, where he journeyed among the people and evangelized them.
In one area, it is said that he decided to strike at the root of the people’s pagan beliefs. He announced that he would cut down an oak tree considered sacred to the gods believed in by the people. Crowds gathered to watch, expecting him to be struck down for this act of blasphemy. He felled the oak, which shattered into four pieces. The people acknowledged that their gods had no power, and many converted.
Boniface went on to systematically evangelize central Germany, founding churches, establishing dioceses, and organizing the hierarchy. He also began a number of monasteries as centers of learning and faith, and encouraged monks and nuns from England to live in them. A number of saints found their way to heaven by joining his work.
The Church in what is now France was in a terrible state at that time—clerical offices were being sold to the highest bidder, the clergy themselves were ignorant and immoral, and the king plundered the Church coffers to pay for his wars. When the king died, Boniface capitalized on the opportunity—he convinced the successors, who were faithful Christians, to help reform the Church, which reinvigorated the faithful there.
He retired at the age of 73 and handed over the leadership of all he had founded. This did not slow him down from evangelizing, however—he returned to the mission fields, finding new people who had not encountered the Gospel. One evening, his encampment was attacked by pagans, and he was the first killed.
St. Boniface is said to have had a deeper influence on the history of Europe than any Englishman ever. Even his contemporaries recognized him as a holy man—he was simple, yet had great insight and power as a missionary and reformer. The relics of St. Boniface rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and his image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.
St. Boniface, martyr who planted the Church in Germany—pray for us!