Father Rick’s Two Minute Homily for Friday, 2nd Week in Lent

March 21, 2025, Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032125.cfm

Someone is Missing.

Mother Teresa tells a story about a young drug addict she and her sisters encountered in London. 

He had long hair, and they saw him sitting with several others on the side of the street. 

Mother Teresa writes: 

And I said to him: “Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here. You should be home with your parents.” The young man shook his head. “Mother, so often I tried to go home. My mother doesn’t want me. Each time I go home, she pushes me out because she can’t bear my long hair.

“I gave him some soup and sandwiches, and we passed on. On our way back, we found him lying flat on the ground. He had overdosed on drugs. 

 I couldn’t help but reflect: here is a child hungry for home, and his mother has no time for him. This is a great poverty. This is where you and I must make this a better world. (Mother Teresa’s Reaching Out In Love, p. 86). 

For this young man, reconciliation with his family became impossible. He was so estranged from them and them from him that all he could do was die alone. 

I remember, over 40 years ago, driving a runaway teenager over 150 miles back to her home in another state. When we approached the door, the father said, “I have no daughter.” The door slammed. The daughter didn’t stop crying until I dropped her off with some sisters I knew who would look after her immediate needs.

Rejection is a horrible reality. 

It’s hard to imagine that the tenants in the gospel parable could be so distant in their relationship with the vineyard’s owner that they lost all respect for him and all who were dear to him. 

In this parable, Jesus teaches us that another person’s rejection can be deadly. Is anyone in our lives so estranged from us we cannot find a way to seek them out?

All the landowner of the vineyard wanted was his due, and he is asking us for the same. And he wasn’t looking for the goods at the end of the harvest, but their loyalty and trust in him. 

Gospel Challenge:

Let me close with something that Jesus told St. Faustina to write in her diary, “Encourage the souls with whom you come in contact to trust in My infinite mercy. Oh, I love those souls who have complete confidence in Me – I will do everything for them.” This trust in God’s mercy is our beacon of hope. 

He will do everything for us.

Please join us for a Penance Service on Tuesday, April 8. This is an opportunity for us to come together as a community, seek reconciliation, and support each other, as several priests will be available to hear Confessions.

Love Your Neighbor!  

Fr. Rick Pilger, IC  

www.bscchurch.com