Leave-taking of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, Christmas; Our Venerable Mother Melania the Roman (439)
1 Peter 1:1-2, 10-12; 2:6-10; Mark 12:1-12
Read Mark 12:1-12
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
There are some projects that we can take on which yield an immediate payoff. Taking a look outside at a messy yard and then looking back after an hour of mowing, trimming and weeding is a great feeling. You see the results of your labour right away. Planting a vineyard requires much more patience, and parenting even more still!
In our reading today we witness the incredible patience of the Lord, who established and nurtured a covenant with His chosen people. Again and again throughout salvation history as His people had fallen from fidelity to the covenant, Our Lord rose up leaders and provided law and prophesy to reclaim them. Despite this, we know that some people preferred the works of darkness to the light when the Lord Himself came to provide the ultimate sign of patience- the Incarnation!
How about us? We can just as easily understand the vineyard to be our Christian duty of cultivating a new life through baptism. We have received the Scriptures, the teachings and liturgy of the Church and the Resurrection of the Lord. Let us not reject these servants of the Vineyard through pride or sin but instead obey them, and through their help, cultivate the soil of our hearts.