Friday of the Second Week of Lent
Jesus makes a dire threat to the chief priests in today’s gospel: “The Kingdom of Heaven will be taken away from you, and given to a people that will produce its fruit” (Mt. 21:43). The chief priests and the elders up to that point were not interested in doing anything with the Kingdom besides building themselves up, and using the Kingdom as a way of boasting—I have it, and you don’t. But they were not doing what God was asking of them with the Kingdom. They were not producing the fruits that God wanted.
Jesus’s warning stands as a stark reminder to us, as well: the Kingdom of God is not simply what we please. It is not for my own personal enjoyment. The Kingdom is given as a gift by God for the works of God. For justice, for peace, for helping others come to know Jesus, thereby making the Kingdom larger. Especially during Lent, all of us should reflect upon the fruits of the Kingdom of God, and how we can bring about those fruits—lest the Kingdom of God be taken away from us, too.