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The Rejected Stone
Where We Are
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time. We are continuing through the evangelist Mark's account of Jesus's final days in Jerusalem. Last week, the religious leaders challenged Jesus's authority, and today he answers with a parable that cuts to the heart of the matter: the parable of the wicked tenants. This is one of Jesus's most pointed stories, and his opponents know exactly whom he is talking about.
The Word
Jesus tells of a vineyard owner who plants, equips, and rents out his vineyard to tenants. When he sends servants to collect the fruit, the tenants beat them, mistreat them, and kill them. Finally, the owner sends his "most dear" son, saying, "They will reverence my son." Instead, the tenants kill the heir, hoping to seize the inheritance. Jesus concludes with a devastating question: what will the owner do? He will destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. Then Jesus quotes Psalm 118: "The stone which the builders have rejected, the same has been made the head of the corner" (Mark 12:10).
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Reflect
This parable is an allegory of salvation history. The vineyard is Israel. The tenants are the religious leaders. The servants are the prophets, beaten and killed throughout the centuries. And the "most dear son" is Jesus himself. The leaders know this; Mark tells us they "knew that he had spoken this parable about them."
But the parable is not just about first-century religious leaders. It asks a universal question: What do we do with what God has entrusted to us? The vineyard was not the tenants' own creation; it was given to them. They were stewards, not owners. Their sin was not just violence; it was the refusal to render what was owed to the one who planted everything.
The rejected stone becoming the cornerstone is one of the great reversals of Scripture. What the powerful dismiss, God elevates. What the builders throw away, God makes the foundation. Jesus, rejected by the religious establishment, crucified by the state, becomes the cornerstone of a new temple built not with stones but with living people.
This pattern continues. The things we reject in ourselves, our weaknesses, our failures, our wounds, God often makes into the cornerstones of our ministry to others.
Living It
Reflect on what God has entrusted to you: relationships, talents, responsibilities, time. Are you stewarding them or hoarding them? The tenants forgot that the vineyard was never theirs.
Is there something in your life that you have dismissed as worthless, a failure, a weakness, a painful experience? Ask God if this "rejected stone" might be the very thing he wants to build upon.
Pray for leaders in the Church and in society. The parable warns that power without accountability leads to destruction. Ask God to keep those in authority humble and faithful.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, you are the cornerstone that the builders rejected. Forgive us when we try to own what you have entrusted to us. Teach us to be faithful stewards of everything we have received: our gifts, our time, our relationships. Build your Church upon the stones that the world discards. Amen.
Today's reflection draws from Mark 12:1-12 and 2 Peter 1:2-7 (CPDV), per the Ordo Lectionum Missae.
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