They Would Not Come to the Feast!
Introduction: May
your day be blessed, especially as you gather with fellow believers to praise
the Lord Jesus and enjoy all that God has for you!
Sunday, or as
it is called in Spanish Domingo, is the Day of the Lord according to most
Christians. It is the day set aside to assemble with others and celebrate the
Goodness of the LORD God. Yet many feel that it is just another obligation that
must be fulfilled or they ignore spending the time each week in church. Our
society sees Sunday as just another day for work, or the same type of
recreation we do on any other day. How do you celebrate the Lord’s Day?
Today we hear
about a banquet feast that surpasses all other celebrations. To this feast,
people of all nations have been invited. This feast will be a time to celebrate
the splendor of our God. Although this is the image in the Isaiah reading and
psalm, the Gospel informs us that some people who have been invited either
refuse to come or do not come in the way in which they are expected to come.
First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10a: ‘The Lord will make a
feast, and he will wipe away tears from all faces.’
Commentary: The
reading begins with the image of the messianic banquet, the banquet which the
LORD is preparing for the end of time, an image which Jesus takes up in the
gospel story of the wedding-feast. After the first lines the image changes to
the removal of the mourning-veil and the destruction of death, every tear wiped
away. In the earlier parts of the Bible the dead are thought to lead a wretched
existence in Sheol, a life which is no life, a sort of half-existence without
power or substance, when the dead cannot even praise God. Gradually Israel
comes to realise that God’s love is so enveloping and so enduring that God
cannot desert or abandon his faithful even in death. Even death cannot cut off
the faithful from God. This is one of the crucial passages where the permanent,
saving strength of God’s love is expressed. Speaking to the Sadducees (who did
not believe in the resurrection) Jesus will say, ‘God is the God not of the
dead but of the living’. Paul will say, ‘Neither death nor life can separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.’
Responsorial Psalm 23:1-3a. 3b-4. 5. 6. In the LORD’S own
house shall I dwell for length of days unending.
The often quoted twenty-third psalm also presents us with a
celebration where the LORD has spread a table before us and where the cup
overflows. This victory feast of our God celebrates that the enemy of God has
been placed in subjection and there is no reason to fear or lament, for God is
in control and is providing for those who have been united under the
shepherd-ship of God.
Second Reading: Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20: ‘I can do all
things through him who strengthens me.’
Commentary: Paul
has reached the final greetings of his letter. Even when he is writing to his
beloved community at Philippi, from whom alone he would accept gifts, Paul is
anxious to maintain his independence. In the ancient world, as in the modern
world, a favour demands a return-favour: ‘there is no such thing as a free
dinner’! So Paul points out that he could manage without the gift they have
given him, since all his strength comes from God. But he also wishes them the
blessing of the fulfilment of all their needs from the glory of God in Christ
Jesus. This is an incomparable blessing, whose awesome value is obscured by our
careless use of the term ‘glory’. The glory of God is a term frightening in its
richness. No human being can see God and live, but Moses can for a moment
glimpse God’s glory – after which his face is so seared that he must wear
a veil over it. It is a glory which, by contrast, fills Isaiah with dread at
his own sinfulness, which makes Ezekiel fall to the ground. It is the
experience of the limitless power and majesty of God.
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14: ‘Invite to the wedding feast as
many as you find.’
Commentary: A
wedding is a time of joy and completion after long preparation, a time of love
and of complete satisfaction. In Judaism at the time of Jesus the coming of the
Messiah is often compared to a wedding-feast. The marriage-feast at Cana must
have been some party! At Mary’s request Jesus produced 200 gallons of wine. The
Letter to the Ephesians teaches that the love in a human wedding is only a pale
shadow of Christ’s love for his bride, the Church. In this story of the royal
wedding, however, two things go drastically wrong. First, the original
wedding-guests refuse to come. Not only do they refuse, but they brutally
maltreat the innocent messengers, and the king (who must stand for God)
relentlessly burns down their city. This must be an adjustment to Jesus’ story,
applying it to the Sack of Jerusalem, captured and burnt by the Romans in 70AD,
a few years before Matthew was writing. Secondly, the man who has no
wedding-garment is slung out. A wedding-garment is a standard Jewish image for
works of generosity expected of every faithful Jew. For us Christians, too, the
story constitutes a double warning.
Reflection: What
can a royal wedding party tell us about God's kingdom? One of the most
beautiful images used in the Scriptures to depict what heaven is like is the
wedding celebration and royal feast given by the King for his newly-wed son and
bride. Whatever grand feast we can imagine on earth, heaven is the feast of all
feasts because the Lord of heaven and earth invites us to the most important
banquet of all - not simply as bystanders or guests - but as members of
Christ's own body, his bride the church! The last book in the Bible ends with
an invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb - the Lord Jesus who offered his
life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins and who now reigns as King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! (Revelation 22:17). The
Lord Jesus invites us to be united with himself in his heavenly kingdom of
peace and righteousness.
Whose interests come first -
God or mine? Why does Jesus' parable of the marriage feast seem to
focus on an angry king who ends up punishing those who refused his invitation
and who mistreated his servants? Jesus' parable contains two stories. The first
has to do with the original guests invited to the marriage feast. The king had
sent out invitations well in advance to his subjects, so they would have plenty
of time to prepare for coming to the feast. How insulting for the invited
guests to then refuse when the time for celebrating came! They made light of
the King's request because they put their own interests above his. They not
only insulted the King but the heir to the throne as well. The king's anger is
justified because they openly refused to give the king the honor he was due.
Jesus directed this warning to the Jews of his day, both to convey how much God
wanted them to share in the joy of his kingdom, but also to give a warning
about the consequences of refusing his Son, their Messiah and Savior.
An invitation we cannot
refuse! The second part of the story focuses on those who had no
claim on the king and who would never have considered getting such an
invitation. The "good and the bad" along the highways certainly
referred to the Gentiles (non-Jews) and to sinners. This is certainly an
invitation of grace - undeserved, unmerited favor and kindness! But this
invitation also contains a warning for those who refuse it or who approach the
wedding feast unworthily. God's grace is a free gift, but it is also an awesome
responsibility.
Cheap grace or costly grace? Dieterich
Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in Germany who died for his faith
under Hitler's Nazi rule, contrasted "cheap grace" and "costly
grace".
"Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves... the
preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance... grace without
discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and
incarnate... Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again,
the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such
grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly
because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the
only true life."
God invites each of us as his friends to his heavenly
banquet that we may celebrate with him and share in his joy. Are you ready to
feast at the Lord's banquet table?
Lord Jesus, may I always know the joy of living in your
presence and grow in the hope of seeing you face to face in your everlasting
kingdom.
Daily Quote from the Early
Church Fathers: A guest with no wedding garment, by John Chrysostom
(347-407 AD)
"But since you have already come into the house of the
marriage feast, our holy church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful,
my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your
heart's clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our
hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw there a person not
clothed in a wedding garment. What do we think is meant by the wedding garment,
dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has
entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has
not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment
but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding
garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not
have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because
this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast
to join the church to himself. Only God's love brought it about that his only
begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)."
(excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9)
a mass roundup
“Come to the feast.” —Matthew
22:4: The King issues an invitation to come to the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass, the feast of the wedding of the Son to His bride, the Church (Rv
19:7, 9). It’s quite a party: Bread from Heaven (Jn 6:32-33), an extraordinary,
overflowing banquet (Is 25:6; Ps 23:5), the fullness of heavenly joy
experienced right here on the face of this planet. What an invitation! Who
could turn that down?
Sadly, many “ignored the invitation” (Mt 22:5). The reasons
are numerous: football, grillouts, tailgate parties, work responsibilities,
pleasure-seeking, hard-heartedness, and outright contempt for the King and His
Son. “They refused to come” (Mt 22:3). They refused to celebrate and rejoice.
The King commented that they “were unfit to come” (Mt 22:8).
Many registered Catholics will not go to Holy Mass today.
God says: “I want My house to be full” (Lk 14:23). Surely there are many people
who need help in accepting God’s most gracious invitation (Mt 22:9). Be among
the servants of the King who go “out into the byroads and invite to” Mass those
people who are famished for the banquet of the lavish love of the Lord (Mt
22:9).
Prayer: Father,
grant me the grace to be completely attached to You and totally detached from
anything which would separate me from You. “In Him Who is the Source of my
strength I have strength for everything.” —Phil 4:13. “Behold our God, to Whom
we looked to save us! This is the Lord for Whom we looked; let us rejoice and
be glad that He has saved us!” (Is 25:9)
The personal action for today:
Do I have Good memories of special festive meals and/or Sunday celebrations?
What do those memories tell me about God’s desire to have me celebrate forever
in heaven? What can I do to make the LORD’s Day a blessed time of re-creation
and celebration of God’s Goodness? How can I share with others the richness and
joy of God’s abundant Goodness?
Saint John XXIII: Although few people had as great an impact on the
20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible.
Indeed, one writer has noted that his “ordinariness” seems one of his most
remarkable qualities.
The firstborn son of a farming family in Sotto il Monte,
near Bergamo in northern Italy, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was always proud of
his down-to-earth roots. In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular
Franciscan Order.
After his ordination in 1904, Fr. Roncalli returned to Rome
for canon law studies. He soon worked as his bishop’s secretary, Church history
teacher in the seminary, and as publisher of the diocesan paper.
His service as a stretcher-bearer for the Italian army
during World War I gave him a firsthand knowledge of war. In 1921, Fr. Roncalli
was made national director in Italy of the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith. He also found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal
City.
In 1925, he became a papal diplomat, serving first in
Bulgaria, then in Turkey, and finally in France. During World War II, he became
well acquainted with Orthodox Church leaders. With the help of Germany’s
ambassador to Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli helped save an estimated 24,000
Jewish people.
Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953,
he was finally a residential bishop. A month short of entering his 78th year,
Cardinal Roncalli was elected pope, taking the name John after his father and
the two patrons of Rome’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. Pope John took his work
very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial, and he began
meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. In 1962, he
was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Cuban missile crisis.
His most famous encyclicals were Mother and Teacher (1961)
and Peace on Earth (1963). Pope John XXIII enlarged the membership in the
College of Cardinals and made it more international. At his address at the
opening of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who
“in these modern times see nothing but prevarication and ruin.”
Pope John XXIII set a tone for the Council when he said,
“The Church has always opposed… errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ
prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”
On his deathbed, Pope John said: “It is not that the gospel
has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have
lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and
traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the
times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.”
“Good Pope John” died on June 3, 1963. St. John Paul II
beatified him in 2000, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014.
Throughout his life, Angelo Roncalli cooperated with God’s
grace, believing that the job at hand was worthy of his best efforts. His sense
of God’s providence made him the ideal person to promote a new dialogue with
Protestant and Orthodox Christians, as well as with Jews and Muslims. In the
sometimes noisy crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, many people become silent on
seeing the simple tomb of Pope John XXIII, grateful for the gift of his life
and holiness. After his beatification, his tomb was moved into the basilica
itself.
