We all have our list of challenges, failures, and rock-bottom situations when we ate our tears, pain, anguish, and even our words and our pride. In graduate school, I make my students reflect and list their personal timeline. They write all the significant events or persons in their life, including the unpleasant ones. Beside each entry, they list down how these points impacted them: their traits, values, and beliefs that emerged from these. Then I make them reflect on their entire timeline. Didn’t one event lead to another? They take note of the things that didn’t make sense then but have helped to mold who they are now. 

If we look back at our own life, we will also see this pattern. The rejections of the past were God’s redirections. Our breakdowns became our breakthroughs. Our Good Fridays led to our Easter Sundays. 

Rejections are building blocks of our resilience. The stones rejected became the crucial cornerstones of our life and faith. 

Michele Alignay (michele.lojpastoralcare@gmail.com)

reflect

“You can only connect life’s dots moving backwards” (Steve Jobs). See how grace followed you in all the dots of your life. 

Lord, give me the eyes to see how You move in my life to turn each stumbling block into a cornerstone and my passion to Your purpose.

Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist, pray for us.

Among Jacob’s sons, Reuben has some decency to save Joseph’s life. The brothers may have a point in being angry at their father’s favoring Joseph, but they should have directed their anger at their father and not at Joseph. There is such a thing as righteous anger, but this will never justify evil acts such as taking a person’s life.

³ Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long tunic. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him. ¹² One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem, ¹³ Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers, you know, are tending our flocks at Shechem. Get ready; I will send you to them.” ¹⁷ So Joseph went after his brothers and caught up with them in Dothan. ¹⁸ They noticed him from a distance, and before he came up to them, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹ They said to one another: “Here comes that master dreamer! ²⁰ Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams.” ²¹ When Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: “We must not take his life. ²² Instead of shedding blood,” he continued, “just throw him into that cistern there in the desert; but do not kill him outright.” His purpose was to rescue him from their hands and return him to his father. ²³ So when Joseph came up to them, they stripped him of the long tunic he had on; ²⁴ then they took him and threw him into the cistern, which was empty and dry. ²⁵ They then sat down to their meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm and resin to be taken down to Egypt. ²⁶ Judah said to his brothers: “What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? ²⁷ Rather, let us sell him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. ²⁸ They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. 

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 105:16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R: Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

¹⁶ When the Lord called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, ¹⁷ He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. (R) ¹⁸ They had weighed him down with fetters, and he was bound with chains, ¹⁹ Till his prediction came to pass and the word of the Lord proved him true. (R) ²⁰ The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free. ²¹ He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions. (R)

Gospel | Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46

There is no justification for intentionally killing another person. Murder is a mortal sin. The parables of Jesus’ ministry are teachings about the nature of God’s Kingdom and are not meant to be taken literally. Today’s Gospel tells us that we are called to participate in the Kingdom of God. It is not ours to own or control. That is God’s role.

Gospel Acclamation

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son; so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

³³ Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: “Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey. ³⁴ When vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. ³⁵ But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones, but they treated them in the same way. ³⁷ Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.’ ³⁹ They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” ⁴¹ They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death and lease his vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the proper times.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures: *The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?* ⁴³ Therefore, I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” ⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ And although they were attempting to arrest him, they feared the crowds, for they regarded him as a prophet.

Read the Bible in one year! Read GENESIS 31 - 33 today.

Big or small, rejection affects us all. No matter how goodhearted or successful, everyone faces the hard reality of rejection at some point. Consequently, people undergo a mixture of emotions and even a painstaking process. According to experts, such phases of coping may include denial (also worry and fear), anger (also frustration and annoyance), bargaining (also guilt and insecurity), depression (also grief), and acceptance (also confidence and freedom).

Perspective is key. How we perceive and accept rejection as part of life is crucial. Rejection, whether personal or professional, can serve as our best motivation, redirection, and even “God’s protection.” A resilient mindset, strengthened by reflective prayer and deeper trust in God, can help us move forward. 

God is like the owner of the vineyard in the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Even with repeated rejections from His people, He remains undeterred in reaching His goal—that is, the fruitfulness and fullness of the life of His beloved. Not even the murder of His Son can dissuade Him from His purpose. God can even turn the machinations of evil into the service of good for His Kingdom, as Jesus has promised, “The gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). 

We may fail God, but God will not fail. Fr. Paolo Asprer, SSP

reflection question

What “fruits” have you been offering to God after receiving manifold blessings from Him?

Thank You, dearest Lord, for protecting me through experiences of rejection and redirection in my life. Amen.

Today, I pray for: ____________________________