Jesus tells a parable to the chief priests, scribes, and elders.
One thing we see in this parable is that God's mission for us may include persecution. When we are sent by God, when we live out our baptism as sharing in Christ's prophecy, when we stick up for the truth in a world of pluralism, we are liable to be persecuted. "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt 5:11-12) and thus they persecuted Jesus.
Why are we persecuted? Because God respects all men's free will. He entrusts His plan to our freedom. He leaves free to accept or reject the messengers whom he sends. And we can reject them by persecuting them, or by forgetting them altogether. And he entrusts to us his very Son, in the Eucharist, in the Christians who bear his name, in all of reality, time and time again, begging for our heart. And by our actions we accept or reject Him.
But even though he was and is rejected by many, Christ has become the cornerstone for his Church. He is a cornerstone because it is a Church of all people, of former Jews and former Gentiles, of children and adults, of different movements and charisms. In all our experience of Church, Christ must be the living Rock; we must seek the personal relationship at the heart of our religious experience. "Who am I... and Who are You?" said St. Francis. Christ came for all humanity and gave his life for all of us, there is no distinction. He wants to draw out each personality into its fullest expression; he wants us to become fully ourselves, centered in He who knows us better than we know ourself.
Lord, keep sending us messengers of Your love, and dispose us to accept them! Do not let us be discouraged when we find we have rejected You out of weakness, but come again to our aid and win us back, be our Rock. Help us to live our acceptance of You in each moment. Give us strength to be the Christians we are called to be, especially in the face of persecution. Help us to discover our true selves in Your mercy.
Mary, mother of our Savior, keep us always in the Church, close to the Source and Summit of everything. Help us to surrender our freedom to Christ through faith and through our actions. Teach us to use our freedom as it was intended to be used.
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