I was reflecting on the Gospel readings we have had in the last few days. We heard Jesus telling the disciples that they needed to be servants when he observed how the scribes and Pharisees were putting an emphasis on glory and honor. We also heard the Gospel story about the rich man and Lazarus, how the rich man did not see the neediness and suffering of Lazarus that was right under his eyes.
Today, the Gospel story turns to Jesus himself, telling a parable of the rich landowner and the vineyard, which Jesus seeing himself as the stone which the builders had rejected, which had now become the cornerstone.
When I think of the stone which the builders had rejected, I think of the people that we ignore or throw away in society. I think of the prisoners I visit at the state correctional institution here in Pearl. The barbaric conditions our prisoners here in Mississippi live in have been front and center in the news recently. We put them in a living situation that no human being should endure. I think of the the masses we celebrate at the Whitfield state hospital each week, of the men and women out there who struggle with mental illness and other such diseases and illnesses, of the pain and suffering in their lives. Are those stones we as a society have thrown away? Are we unwilling to commit the necessary resources to these programs? Sometimes, we want to overlook the least and the neediest in society. What is God calling us to do?
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