FRIDAY 2ND WEEK
Amanda Stoddard C ‘14

Welcome Him With an Open Heart

"The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to people, producing the fruit of it." Matthew 21: 43

Have you ever you ever been tempted to push God away? Have you ever felt the desire to live your life the way you want to live it with-out any wires attached, without any responsibility or accountability to others? In the Gospel today, Jesus teaches a parable in the temple about the wicked tenants who reject the landowner and those whom the land-owner sends to them. The arrogance of the tenants leads them to violence against the landowner’s messengers and to the murder of the landowner’s son. Their actions are not only a grave injustice, they are immature and blind to the reality that it’s not their vineyard. In reality, our lives are the vineyards given to us by God. He desires to bear fruit in us. The tenants can be an example of the temptation we may have, at times, to want to be completely independent from the landowner, to claim the vineyard as our own and refuse to see it as a gift.

We have been given a great gift of ourselves and each day of our lives. Through faith, Jesus invites us to be co-workers in His vineyard, not independent contractors. May we never forget that He wants to bear fruit in and through us, if only we continue to welcome Him with an open heart.

Lord, you have given me my life and faith. Help me use my faith to be holy like you. Lord if I trust you and abandon myself, help me to do so with all my heart. Amen.

Gn 37: 3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28, Ps 105: 16-21, Mt 21: 33-43, 45-46