“’But the husbandmen seeing the son, said among themselves: ‘This is the heir: come let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance.’ And taking him, they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard shall 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 shall render him the fruit in due season.’ Jeus saith 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, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a nation yielding the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall 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 multitudes: because they held him as a prophet.”
In the reverence due the Son: “For he shall go up that shall open the way before them: they shall divide, and pass through the gate, and shall come in by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them” (Micheas 2:13), there is a look into what should be given to Jesus, which many did indeed give: “Which when the people knew, they followed him; and he received them, and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and healed them who had need of healing” (Luke 9:11), but those that led the people of Jerusalem instead sought to snuff Him out: “But one of them, named Caiphas, being the high priest that year, said to them: ‘You know nothing. Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not’” (John 11:49-50). It is Jesus that is sent to love you and teach you how to love, and none other: “Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13), and you pay Him due homage in trusting Him and loving Him, opening the gates of your Heart that He may dwell there: “Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in” (Psalm 23:7). The religious leaders, then, sought to grasp a heartless yet precise observance of the Law: “But the prophet, who being corrupted with pride, shall speak in my name things that I did not command him to say, or in the name of strange gods, shall be slain” (Deuteronomy 18:20), thus inheriting what they thought to be God’s favor, when in reality their hard, loveless hearts could not be pierced even by the love that God offers through Jesus: “And Pharao's heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had commanded” (Exodus 7:13), instead throwing Jesus out of Jerusalem: “And putting both hands upon his head, let him confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their offences and sins: and praying that they may light on his head, he shall turn him out by a man ready for it, into the desert” (Leviticus 16:21) and slaying Him: “But if he offer of the flock a victim for his sin, to wit, an ewe without blemish: He shall put his hand upon the head thereof, and shall immolate it in the place where the victims of holocausts are wont to be slain” (Leviticus 4:32-33). Think, Theophila, how many people drag Jesus out of the temple of their hearts and crucify Him by their sins: “For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have moreover tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery” (Hebrews 6:4-6), and all He wants is a home, to be taken in from the cold rain of rejection so common in the world into the warmth of your heart: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights” (Canticle 5:2), to be met not with a list of requests but the uninhibited gift of yourself: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies” (Canticle 6:2). When the Father then comes to you or any of His people, how will He react to how they have treated Jesus in their lives; with a push out of their temple so that other things can take priority: “They profess that they know God: but in their works they deny him; being abominable, and incredulous, and to every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:16), or in making Him the true treasure of their hearts, Him being the one thing necessary: “Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Thus, by the chief priests and elders chasing Jesus out of Jerusalem and slaughtering Him is prefigured those that chase Jesus out of their hearts, rather than securing His presence within them with sweet reading of the Scriptures and cultivating the fruits of love: “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits, if the pomegranates flourish: there will I give thee my breasts” (Canticle 7:11-12). Jesus then reinforces this with a Psalm, showing Himself to be the cornerstone, with the builders rejecting Him: “Some therefore of the Pharisees said: ‘This man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath’” (John 9:16). Therefore, the kingdom, the honor of being God’s people and the guardians of the truth within Sacred Scripture was to be taken from them and given to those who would love God through Jesus, properly find love through the Scriptures, and then yield the fruits thereof: “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:16-20). Whoever believes in Jesus, yet continues to sin, finds themselves stumbling over Him and breaking the unity of hearts that is so precious to the Christian life: “Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh” (Matthew 19:6), but to deny Him utterly is to have nothing within that is love: “Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:13); “Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth” (Psalm 1:4). Thus, to do what is worthy of guilt keeps one bent and struggling to walk upright: “I am become miserable, and am bowed down even to the end: I walked sorrowful all the day long” (Psalm 37:7), but even this is to walk, trusting that Jesus will by grace straighten out what cannot look upwards: “And behold there was a woman, who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years: and she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all. Whom when Jesus saw, he called her unto him, and said to her: ‘Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity.’ And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God” (Luke 13:11-13). However, the religious leaders realize Jesus is calling them dust that will be crushed by the stone, and seek to lay hands on Him. To lay hands on Jesus as a Christian is to throw aside His commandments: “But they provoked thee to wrath, and departed from thee, and threw thy law behind their backs” (2 Esdras 9:26), complain against God and his ways: “And all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness” (Exodus 16:2), or walk in sullenness and sadness: “Have pity on thy own soul, pleasing God, and contain thyself: gather up thy heart in his holiness: and drive away sadness far from thee. For sadness hath killed many, and there is no profit in it. Envy and anger shorten a man's days, and pensiveness will bring old age before the time” (Ecclesiasticus 30:24-26), for these show the lack of love in the heart. Thus, the religious leaders restrain themselves from assailing Jesus for the sake of the crowd, and so too is the one that seeks to assault another in word, yet keeps their tongue due to the ones around them, for this is a lack of love, whereas to pity one who is overrun with passion, or simply acknowledge a difference in temperament is the more gentle way.