The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is not the first time that we encounter this passage from Psalm 118. We encountered it on Easter Friday (First Reading from Acts). The passage has always been readily understood as referring to Jesus, for indeed Jesus did become the cornerstone of a new world order. However, a closer look at both passages revealed something quite interesting, something worth reflecting about. The context in which the passage is used in today's Gospel reading is the mistreating of the servants by the tenants, an act which results in the handing over of the vineyard to others. In Acts, Peter refers to the passage after the healing of the crippled man on whose account, then, many people come to believe in Jesus. The interesting thing here, for me, is the crippled man as well as "those outsiders" who were handed the vineyard. For in both cases, there is an outsider who becomes an important part in the play, so to speak. It is interesting because it is not what they have become that stands out for me, but what they were! They were outcasts, people who were considered outsiders to what was going on. They were outsiders because they had nothing to contribute. It is apparently this "uselessness" that lands them a role in the play. They become a hinge upon which something beautiful hangs: God's work! While it can be seen that it is the misfortune of the tenants that lands the "outsiders" the job, it might actually be who they were that makes them open to the promptings of God. It is their rejection by the mainstream society that turns them into cornerstones.