Good morning, time again for Moments of Melody. There was a boy who lost his father while still a baby. However, he had a devoted, hard-working mother. By washing clothes, she was able to send him to the university. The boy did well, and in due time he passed his examinations with high honors. You can imagine, then, with what joy the mother attended the university to watch as the honors were conferred on her son. One final pleasure remained was that of embracing her son and proudly escorting him home. But as the young man filed out of the auditorium in the company of others, he dared to snub his surprised, heartbroken mother, by remarking to one of his friends, She's only the old washerwoman who handled my laundry while I was at the university. We're shocked by such ingratitude. But wait a moment. What about our ingratitude to one who has done far more than any mother or father has ever done for a child? The Lord Jesus loved you and gave himself for you. He died for you. Have you ever thanked him? Thank you. The Gospel according to St. Mark chapter twelve and verse one. We're reading from the translation of Monsignor Ronald Knox. Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables. There was a man who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press and built a tower in it and then led it out to some vine dressers while he went on his travels. When the season came he went to one of his servants. He sent one of his servants on an errand to the vine dressers. to claim from the vine dressers the revenue of his vineyard. Whereupon they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant on a second errand to them, and him too they beat over the head, and used him outrageously. He sent another whom they killed, and many others whom they beat or killed at their pleasure. He still had one messenger left, his own well-beloved son. Him he sent to them, last of all. They will have reverence, he said, for my son. But the vine dressers said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him. Then this inheritance will be ours. So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. And now what will the owner of that vineyard do? He will come and make an end of those vineyard and give his vineyard to others. Why, if you not read this passage in the scripture, very stone which the builders rejected, to become the chief stone at the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Who was the Son in the parable? Yes, that's right, the Lord Jesus. They killed him. They put him on the cross, but he didn't die there for his sins. He was wounded for you and me. Again, I ask you, have you ever thanked him? It's real ingratitude not to express appreciation to the Lord Jesus for all he's done. And then have you ever asked him to be your Savior?