1 MARCH – FRIDAY IN THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT

Lesson – Genesis xxxvii. 6‒22

In those days Joseph said to his brethren: “Hear my dream which I have dreamed. I thought we were binding sheaves in the field, and my sheaf arose, as it were, and stood, and your sheaves, standing about, bowed down before my sheaf.” His brethren answered: “Will you be our king? or will we be subject to your dominion?” Therefore this matter of his dreams and words ministered nourishment to their envy and hatred. He dreamed also another dream which he told his brethren, saying: “I saw in a dream, as it were, the sun and the moon and eleven stars worshipping me.” And when he had told this to his father and brethren, his father rebuked him and said: “What means this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother, and your brethren, worship you on the earth?” His brethren therefore envied him, but his father considered the thing with himself. And when his brethren abode in Sichem, feeding their father’s flocks, Israel said to him: “Your brethren feed the sheep in Sichem; come, I will send you to them.” And when he answered: “I am ready,” he said to him: “Go, and see if all things be well with your brethren and the cattle, and bring me word again what is doing.” So being sent from the valley of Hebron, he came to Sichem. And a man found him there wandering in the field and asked him what he sought. But he answered: “I seek my brethren; tell me where they feed their flocks.” And the man said to him: “They are departed from this place, for I heard them say: Let us go to ‘Dothain.’” And Joseph went forward after his brethren and found them in Dothain. And when they saw him afar off, before he came near them, they thought to kill him, and said one to another: “Behold the dreamer comes; come, let us kill him, and cast him into some old pit: and we will say: Some evil beast has devoured him: and then it will appear what his dreams avail him.” And Ruben hearing this, endeavoured to deliver him out of their hands, and said: “Do not take away his life, nor shed his blood; but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and keep your hands harmless.” Now he said this, being desirous to deliver him out of their hands, and restore him to his father.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel – Matthew xxi. 33–46

At that time, Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, and to the chief priests this parable: There was a householder who planted a vineyard and made a hedge round about it, and dug in it a press, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a strange country. And when the time of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits thereof. And the husbandmen laying hands on his servants, beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the former; and they did to them in like manner. And last of all he sent them his son, saying: “They will reverence my son.” But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves: “This is the heir, come, let us kill him and we will have his inheritance.” And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard and killed him. When, therefore, the lord of the vineyard will come, what will he do to those husbandmen? They say to him: “He will bring those evil men to an evil end, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen that will render him the fruit in due season.” Jesus said to them: “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? By the Lord this has been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.’ Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and will be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. And whoever will fall on this stone will be broken, but on whoever it will fall, it will grind him to powder.” And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they knew that He spoke of them. And seeking to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude because they held him as a prophet.

Praise be to you, O Christ.

Saint Ambrose of Milan:

Many derive divers spiritual meanings from the term vineyard, but Isaias gives us to know that “the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel,” (v. 7.) Who but God planted that vineyard? He it was that let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country; not that the Lord, Who is everywhere present, moves from place to place; but because He is near to them that seek Him, and from such as regard Him not He stands far away. For a long time He tarried away, lest He might seem to ask too early for the fruits of His vineyard. For where kindness is greatest, there ingratitude is worst.

Therefore it is well written in Matthew for our instruction that He “hedged it round about,” that is, He girded it with the fortifications of His own Divine protection that it might not easily lie open to the ravages of spiritual wild beasts. “" And dug a wine-press in it.” What sense are we to put upon the wine-press unless it be that the Psalms are here described under that title because in them the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion flow over like new wine, working under the power of the Holy Ghost ? Whence also, they upon whom the Holy Ghost was out-poured, were deemed to be drunken (Acts ii. 13) God therefore dug a wine-press into which the reasonable grapes of inward fruitfulness poured their spiritual richness.

“And built a tower”—that is, He raised up the goodly structure of the Law. And so this His vineyard, thus fortified, furnished and garnished, He gave over to the Jews. “And when the time of the fruit drew near, He sent His servants to the husbandmen.” Well does He call it the time of the fruit, not the time of the in-gathering. For the Jews yielded Him no fruit; the Lord had no in-gathering from that vineyard of which He said: “When I looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes.” (Isaias v. 4) Not with wine that makes glad the heart of man, not with the new wine of the spirit, reeked that wine-press, but with the blood of the Prophets, brutally shed.