Mc 12,1-12 – Saint Justin Martyr, Memory
«A man planted a vineyard, placed a hedge around it, dug a wine press, built a tower, then rented it to some winemakers and went far away».
It seems to me to be a beautiful image that Jesus gives us on today’s Gospel page. In conclusion, life is a vineyard that we did not plant, but which was entrusted to us. None of us chose to be born. We found ourselves inside a story, inside a time, inside a family, inside a network of relationships that precedes us. All of this is a gift. AND every time we forget that life is a gift, we also forget that we must exercise custody and not dominion.
The parable told by Jesus warns us against this temptation: believing we are masters of what, in reality, we have only received. The winemakers in the parable forget that they are stewards and behave like owners. It is man’s oldest sin: substituting God and thinking that he is self-sufficient. But God doesn’t give up. He continues to send his servants and, finally, he sends the Son.
God’s is a stubborn love, which does not stop seeking us even when we distance ourselves from Him. Perhaps the most important message of today’s Gospel is precisely this: true joy does not come from possessing, but from trusting. Those who think they are masters of the world inevitably live in anguish, because they must continually defend what they believe to be theirs. Those who discover themselves as children and trustees live in freedom, because they know that everything is a gift. Because of this faith is not about holding on to things, but about learning to trust. Perhaps holiness also consists of this: treating everything we have received with gratitude, knowing that nothing is owed to us and that everything has been given to us so that we learn to love.
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