The Second Chance!

Friday, March 1, 2024

Gn 37:3-4,12-13,17-28; Mt 21:33-43,45-46

In today’s Gospel, Jesus highlights faithfulness as a Kingdom virtue. 

The parable shows that the Landowner leased his land which was his cherished possession. 

The diligent care he gives to the land is explicit in the words that he ‘planted the vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it and built a tower.’

Here, God is the Landowner; the vineyard is Israel; and the tenants are Israelite leaders. 

If so, this story is about those who betrayed the Lord by misleading His people, even turning them against His only Son. 

If the parable is about their unfaithfulness to the Lord, it is not as if they are unaware of their sin.

Towards the end of the parable, the Gospel reads that the Pharisees ‘knew that he was speaking about them.’

However, in their hardheartedness, they behave like the wretched tenants in the parable.

Even when they are offered a second chance, they only consider the possibility of arresting Jesus and not their conversion. 

There is a ‘tenant’ in each of us when we are unfaithful and unresponsive to God’s love. 

God offers each of us a second chance to right the wrongs. 

Lent is a period of grace where we are invited to respond generously to God’s love. 

How far are we willing to make use of the second chance to set things right? 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar