Gospel of March 5, 2021

Gospel of March 5: With this very harsh parable, Jesus confronts his interlocutors with their responsibility, and he does so with extreme clarity. But let us not think that this admonition applies only to those who rejected Jesus at that time. It applies to all times, even ours. Even today God expects the fruits of his vineyard from those whom he has sent to work in it. All of us. (…) The vineyard belongs to the Lord, not ours. Authority is a service, and as such it must be exercised, for the good of all and for the spread of the Gospel. (Pope Francis Angelus 4 October 2020)

From the book of Gènesi Gen 37,3-4.12-13.17-28 Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son they had in old age, and she had made him a long-sleeved tunic. His brothers, seeing that their father loved him more than all his children, hated him and could not speak to him in a friendly way. His brothers had gone to feed their father's flock at Shechem. Israel said to Joseph, "Do you know that your brothers are grazing at Shechem? Come, I want to send you to them." Then Joseph set out again in search of his brothers and found them in Dothan. They saw him from afar and, before he got close to them, they plotted against him to kill him. They said to each other: "Here it is! The lord of dreams has arrived! Come on, let's kill him and throw him in a cistern! Then we will say: "A wild beast has devoured him!". So we'll see what happens to his dreams!"

Word of Jesus

But Ruben heard and, wanting to save him from their hands, said: «Let's not take his life». Then he said to them: "Do not shed the blood, throw it into this cistern which is in the desert, but do not strike it with your hand": he intended to save him from their hands and bring him back to his father. When Joseph arrived at his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the long-sleeved tunic that he was wearing, grabbed him and threw him into the cistern: it was an empty cistern, without water.

Then they sat down to get food. When, looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with camels laden with resin, balsam and laudanum, which they were going to take to Egypt. Then Judas said to the brothers, “What is the gain in killing our brother and covering his blood? Come on, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and our hand is not against him, for he is our brother and our flesh." His brothers listened to him. Some Midianite merchants passed by; they pulled up and took Joseph out of the cistern and for twenty shekels of silver they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites. So Joseph was taken to Egypt.

Gospel of March 5th

From the Gospel according to Matthew Mt 21,33-43.45 At that time, Jesus said to the chief priests and to the elders of the people: «Listen to another parable: there was a man who owned land and he planted a vineyard. He surrounded it with a hedge, dug a hole for the press and built a tower. He leased it to peasants and went far away. When the time came to harvest the fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect the harvest. But the peasants took the servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first, but they treated them the same way. Finally he sent his own son to them, saying, "They will respect my son!" But the peasants, seeing his son, said to one another, “This is the heir. Upon him, let us kill him and we shall have his inheritance!" They seized him, drove him out of the vineyard and killed him.
So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those peasants?”

Gospel March 5: They replied, "He will put those wicked men to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other peasants, who will deliver the fruit to him in due time."
And Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures:
“The stone that the builders rejected
it has become the cornerstone;
this was done by the Lord
and it is a marvel in our eyes”?
Therefore I say to you: the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who produce its fruits."
After hearing these parables, the chief priests and the Pharisees understood that he was speaking of them. They tried to capture him, but they were afraid of the crowd, because he considered him a prophet.