Readings: GN 37:3-4, 12-13A, 17B-28A; PS 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21; MT 21:33-43, 45-46
Sometimes we can predict the results of our actions, and sometimes we cannot.
Take for example, from the first reading, the results of the actions of Joseph’s brothers. They didn’t like Joseph because he often told them he would be their master. They wanted to get rid of him, first by killing him, then by abandoning him, but ultimately they sold him as a slave. They got want they wanted, they got rid of Joseph, and in the process they gained twenty silver pieces.
“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.
The Psalm somewhat finishes the story. What the brothers didn’t know at the time, was Joseph would become a great ruler in Egypt. And in the process, when a famine hit their homeland, and they traveled to Egypt in order to survive, Joseph became their master.
In the gospel reading, we hear Jesus tell the parable of the landowner building a vineyard then leasing it out to tenants. The tenants wanted to keep everything themselves. They not only injured and murdered the landowner’s servants, but also his son. The result?
“He 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.”
The original tenants should have know this would be the result. Just like we should know the results of our actions. When we sin, there are consequences. While we might find some temporary benefit or enjoyment from the sin, it is only temporary.
But when we do good, when we follow Jesus’ example and perform corporal works of mercy:
- To feed the hungry
- To give drink to the thirsty
- To shelter the homeless
- To visit the sick
- To visit the prisoners
- To bury the dead
- To give alms to the poor
We may not be able to predict the results of these actions, but we know it is the right thing to do.
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