Day of abstinence from meat(age 14 and up).

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

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

(…..)They saw (Joseph) 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.(…..) 

 

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 keystone. 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.

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：

The hostilities between Jesus and the religious authorities have now reached a point when confrontation is inevitable. They tried to court Jesus so that He could be one of them thereby strengthening their own authorities by recruiting the latest wonder boy that appeared from nowhere.

But Jesus does not buy the teachings of the established religious authorities. He finds their legalistic interpretation of the Law as stifling the spirit of the Law. thus they see each other in opposite divide.

Jesus in this gospel further split Himself apart from them. He told in plain words that they will not inherit the kingdom for they did not respect the prophets sent by God, nor His only Son. The die is cast. From that time on, the religious authorities will seek His downfall.