Bible Diary

Daily Reading

Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
353

FIRST READING

2 Pt 1:2-7

Beloved: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

PSALM

Ps 91:1-2, 14-15ab, 15c-16

Response: O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble.

I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.

GOSPEL

Mk 12:1-12

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders in parables.
“A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘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.’ And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this Scripture:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away.

Daily Reflection

God alone gives true happiness; everything else is temporary. Therefore, as Peter advises in today’s reading, it is necessary to: “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.”

In the Gospel, Jesus describes the building of God’s Kingdom here on earth. In the parable, the man plants a vineyard and leases it to tenants. They reject every servant the man sends to collect the produce. Finally, when the man sends his son, the people – lacking virtue, self-control and love - kill him thinking they can claim the land, since the man’s only heir will be eliminated. God is the owner of the vineyard, we are the tenants! And this Gospel is a timely reminder that the stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone!

When we alienate God from our lives we reject the very foundation of our existence and our only chance of true joy.