The season of Lent is one of the oldest parts of the Church's liturgy. The forty days symbolize Israel's forty years of wandering in the desert, and Jesus' forty days fast at the beginning of His public life. It is a time of purification and inner preparation for the transforming events that lie ahead. The two readings in the Lenten Masses are chosen to echo a particular aspect of our Lenten purification. And, as is true in today's liturgy, on the Fridays of Lent they look ahead to Good Friday. In the gospel Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard owner and his tenants. As is often the case, the Pharisees and their followers understand Jesus better than His own disciples do. They realize that Jesus is referring to them as the tenants in the Lord's vineyard, Israel. But they follow the old American proverb: If you don't like the message, kill the messenger. Or rather, like Joseph's brothers in the first reading, they want to kill the messenger but are afraid of the reaction of the people, who greatly admire Jesus.

What about me? I am the tenant manager of part of the Lord's vineyard today. Can I listen to the owner's, the Lord's, correction and criticism? Or do I reject Him when I find His demands, made out of love for me, too threatening? Am I like the person who read in the newspaper that smoking causes cancer - and so he stopped reading the newspaper!