Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 13, 2020
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.
“When the harvest time had come, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.
“Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
“Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds because they regarded him as a prophet.
With the parable of the wicked tenants, we are now well into the second act of Jesus’ ministry. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus takes the twelve apostles on retreat to Caesarea Philippi, north of Galilee, where he tests their understanding of his true identity: Who do you say that I am? After this critical turning point, he reveals his divine glory to the inner circle of Peter, James, and John in the Transfiguration. His close followers begin to understand he is the promised Messiah as he begins his final journey to Jerusalem, where our Lord’s ministry will reach its dramatic, unexpected climax.
It is in this context, proclaimed as the Messiah, that Jesus confronts the Pharisees in today’s reading. Hear another parable, he says. In other words: Pay attention, this pertains to you. The Pharisees understand this but refuse to appreciate the implications. Rather than respond to the truth of what Jesus says, they are angry at his audacity for saying it. What is most striking in this passage is Jesus’ unreserved allusion to his own impending death. The vineyard owner sends his own son to set things right in his absence trusting that, “they will respect my son.” This tragic parable tells us that, because of their sinfulness and greed, the wicked tenants kill even the master’s son. Those who hear this gospel passage, from the Pharisees in Jesus’ time to us today, are forced to ask, “Do we reject the master’s son? Will we be the ones who put him to death?”
How seriously do we listen to Christ? When he confronts us with straightforward but difficult truths, are we angry he expects so much from us? Do we question his rightful authority over us? Might we assume his more severe teachings don’t pertain to our lives? Let us pray this Lent that God might lay bare our presumptions and give us the necessary humility to follow Jesus, even in his most difficult teachings.
Prayer
Lord, teach us to be filled with you and emptied of an ego that puts our glory over your glory. Let us be your ambassador. Give us your voice and direct our motives this day that we might produce the fruits of the kingdom. Amen.
Saint of the Day
As a missionary, Bl. Agnellus took the Franciscan way of life—poverty, simplicity, prayerfulness, community—to England in both word and deed.
He was born to a family of nobles in Pisa, Italy, in 1195. St. Francis himself received him into the Franciscan order. Even though he was a deacon, he was sent to Paris to start a Franciscan mission there. From there, he was sent to England with nine other Franciscans.
True to the spirit of St. Francis, they set out for England with no money. A monastery near the coast paid for their passage to Dover. When they arrived, they settled at Canterbury in a building that was used as a school by day. They had to stay huddled in a back room while students were in the building, and after they had left, the Franciscans could come out and make themselves feel at home with a fire. For sustenance, they had only a little bread and a thick beer that had to be diluted with water. These conditions, however, did not dampen their spirits and they were quickly known for their simple piety, cheerfulness, and enthusiasm. The community grew and they secured a place to live in London and a school at Oxford.
King Henry III befriended Agnellus, and admired his holiness and purity. He asked Agnellus to serve as a diplomat and to negotiate a dispute between the king and an earl that threatened civil war.
Agnellus was known as a deeply prayerful man. He shed tears continually during Mass because he was moved so deeply, but he did not make any kind of show of his piety. He strictly followed a commitment to poverty. He only consented to build anything when it was a last resort, it was said, and one of the infirmaries was built so simply that its ceilings were only barely higher than a person.
He died at the age of 41 of natural causes in 1236, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, you were the Franciscan missionary who founded centers of study and prayer in England—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Bl. Agnellus of Pisa is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed February 6, 2025.