Post-feast of Theophany. Martyr Tatiana.
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat.
1 Peter 1:1-2, 10-12. 2:6-10. Mark 12:1-12.
Read Mark 12:1-12
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
Through today’s parable Jesus gives a clear and directed response to the Jewish leadership who are resisting and even opposing God’s work of salvation. He reminds them who they are. That they, as God’s people and His coworkers, live in a privileged position being invited by God to live and work in His vineyard. That they benefit from someone else’s property and have received tremendous blessings. Jesus is trying to help them understand that opposing God is folly. It is like standing in opposition to reality itself. It is like trying to smash a stone with your hands and expect it to break.
An anonymous commentator on todays Scripture says:
Christ is called a stone for two reasons. First, because his foundation is solid and no one who stands upon him will fall victim to deceitful charms or be moved by the storms of persecution. Second, Christ is called a stone because in him is the ultimate destruction of the wicked, for just as everything which collides with a stone is shattered while the stone itself remains intact, so also everyone who opposes the Christian faith will himself be ruined, but Christianity will remain untouched. This is the sense in which Christ is the great stone.” Whoever falls on it will be broken to pieces, but it will crush those upon whom it falls.” It is one thing to be broken but something else again to be crushed, for sizeable pieces of whatever is broken remain, but whatever gets crushed is reduced to dust and utterly eliminated. The stone does not break those who fall upon it, but they break themselves who fall on the stone. Their destruction therefore is not attributable to the stone’s strength but to the violence with which they fall upon it. (Homily 40.18)