Celebración de la palabra

Friday March 13

Friday of 2nd Week of Lent

SUFFERING SAVES

Introduction

Joseph suffered because his brothers were jealous. Yet later he would save them from famine. Jesus was rejected and died for our sins. He became the keystone for a new kingdom, for the life of all. And we? We want happiness without pain, without paying the price for it, though sacrifice and happiness are close relatives. If the grain of wheat does not die… We know this, but it’s too uncomfortable to put into practice if we are not forced by circumstances . . .

Opening Prayer

God, we do not want to die;
we want to live.
We want to be happy
but without paying the price.
We belong to our times,
when sacrifice and suffering are out of fashion.
God, make life worth the pain to be lived,
Give us back the age-old realization
that life means to be born
again and again in pain,
that it may become again
a journey of hope to you,
together with Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reading 1 Gn 37:3-4, 12-13A, 17B-28A

Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons,
for he was the child of his old age;
and he had made him a long tunic.
When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons,
they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.

One day, when his brothers had gone
to pasture their father's flocks at Shechem,
Israel said to Joseph,
"Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem.
Get ready; I will send you to them."

So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan.
They noticed him from a distance,
and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him.
They said to one another: "Here comes that master dreamer!
Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here;
we could say that a wild beast devoured him.
We shall then see what comes of his dreams."

When Reuben heard this,
he tried to save him from their hands, saying,
"We must not take his life.
Instead of shedding blood," he continued,
"just throw him into that cistern there in the desert;
but do not kill him outright."
His purpose was to rescue him from their hands
and return him to his father.
So when Joseph came up to them,
they stripped him of the long tunic he had on;
then they took him and threw him into the cistern,
which was empty and dry.

They then sat down to their meal.
Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead,
their camels laden with gum, balm and resin
to be taken down to Egypt.
Judah said to his brothers:
"What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood?
Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites,
instead of doing away with him ourselves.
After all, he is our brother, our own flesh."
His brothers agreed.
They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.

Responsorial Psalm 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R. (5a)Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
When the LORD called down a famine on the land
and ruined the crop that sustained them,
He sent a man before them,
Joseph, sold as a slave.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
They had weighed him down with fetters,
and he was bound with chains,
Till his prediction came to pass
and the word of the LORD proved him true.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.
R. Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

Alleluia Jn 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son;
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

Gospel Mt 21:33-43, 45-46

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
"Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them,
thinking, 'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
AHe will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, ADid you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Therefore, I say to you,
the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,
they knew that he was speaking about them.
And although they were attempting to arrest him,
they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

Commentary

Violence is not a suitable answer to provocation. In the Genesis narrative, the brothers of Joseph are jealous of the favor that their father shows Joseph. They therefore plan to kill him. Feeling a certain measure of remorse, they devise another plan as a compromise settlement. They will sell their brother to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites. The act was a despicable act of treachery against a member of their own family.
The parable in today’s Gospel is an allegory. The owner of the vineyard is God himself; the tenant farmers are the Jewish people. When, at harvest time, the owner sends his messenger to obtain a share of the harvest, the delegation is subjected to a violent attack. A second group is sent with the same results. These represent the prophets and teachers of the Old Testament that had been sent to the Jewish people. When there is question of sending the owner’s son, the allegory takes on a strong New Testament hue. The reference is to Christ himself, God’s Son, who is rejected and killed at the hands of his oppressors. The kingdom of God, with Christ as its cornerstone, will now pass to a foreign people.
Our world is so marked by violence that we have become inured to it. People are raped and killed by unknown assailants. Robberies all too often end in bloodshed. Sometimes a simple provocation can lead to violence and death. We cannot escape the fact that the New Testament contains a strong pacifist ethic. It should be a rule of our life that we will never lift a hand against another person. We oppose the death penalty for various reasons—one is the infliction on the guilty person of the same evil that we decry in his conduct.
Christians are essentially agents of peace and harmony. Let us point out mistakes or failings when this is justified, but never inflict harm on anyone. That is the only response possible from those to whom the owner has now consigned the vineyard.

Points to Ponder

Jealousy and anger
The evil of violence

Intercessions

– For those who are betrayed in their friendship and trust, we pray:
– For street children and young people abandoned and neglected by their families, we pray:
– For all those who suffer in their bodies and for those seriously ill, that they may find strength and consolation in the cross of our Lord, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord our God,
we celebrate your Son’s victory over death.
Through him you give us life
and teach us to accept death.
Lord, help us to love life
without refusing to suffer when necessary
for the sake of love and renewal.
May we see the fear of death
and the urge for life
in the light of the life and death
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, make us fully accept
the realities of life:
that there is no birth without pain,
no growth without effort,
no adulthood without struggle,
no wisdom without experience and practice.
God, raise us above ourselves,
that we may understand and accept
the wisdom of the cross
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Blessing

Joseph forgave his brothers and became a blessing to them. On the cross Jesus brought us forgiveness and life and a beautiful sign of this was how he forgave those who had led him to the cross. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.