MEMORIAL OF ST JUSTIN MARTYR.
THE MEMORIAL OF ST JUSTIN MARTYR.
THEY KILLED HIS ONLY SON.
"And he began to speak to them in parables.
"A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country.
When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
And they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent to them another servant, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully.
And he sent another, and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed.
He had still one other, a beloved son; finally he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son.'
But those tenants said to one another,This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
And they took him and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.
What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this scripture: `The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner;
this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"
And they tried to arrest him, but feared the multitude, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them; so they left him and went away. (Mark 12: 1 - 12).
Monday 1st June 2026, in the 9th Week in Ordinary Time is the feast of St Justin Martyr (+ 165).
Born in Samaria in Palestine. An eminent philosopher and the first apologist in the Church.
He defended the Christian faith in his writings in Rome where he established a school of public debate.
St Justin was beheaded under Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Justin is the patron saint of apologists, philosophers, teachers and speakers.
Mark 12: 1 - 12 is one of the saddest Parables in the Gospels in my view
The ungrateful and grasping tenants had thoroughly abused other messengers before the landlord sent his own Son.
They surely would respect him, he believed. But they killed him and desecrated his body thereby adding insult to injury.
What is the point of the whole story?
The incredible and longsuffering nature of God.
No human king or landlord could tolerate a fraction of what these malevolent tenants did.
While we are thankful for God's patience with our sins, it will be a mistake to think that this time of grace and mercy will last forever.
The Church honors the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus every June.
"Jesus Christ desires nothing so much as to see His love recognized and returned.
It is by His Heart that He loves us; it is by His Heart that He wishes to be loved in return.
Nothing is more perfectly ordered by Divine Providence than this reciprocal movement of love."— Fr. Jean Croiset, S.J.
Read of the abundant promises made to people who honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus especially in June and on First Fridays of Every Month.
For Prayers and Prayer intentions click the link below.
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