OT XXVIII: Is 25:6-10a; Phil 4:12-14, 19-20; Mt 22:1-14 

The parable in today’s gospel reading tells the story of a king who offered an invitation to his son’s wedding feast that was refused by many. In that culture, people normally received two invitations to a feast, an initial invitation sometime before the event and a second invitation just as the meal was ready. To refuse the second invitation at the point when the meal was all prepared, having already said yes to the first invitation, would have been a great insult to the host. It is this second invitation that people decline in the parable that we have just heard. Those who had been invited and had accepted the invitation were called to the table just as the food was about to be served, and they said ‘no thanks’, some of them in a very violent fashion. The equivalent experience today might be someone who had accepted an invitation to a meal at a friend’s house and then, just ten minutes before the meal is due to start rings up and says he or she will not be able to come after all. The host might have second thoughts about asking that person around again.

There is joy at the heart of the Christian life. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus give us something to celebrate, even when life is going against us. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection proclaim the good news that God’s mercy is stronger than our sins, that God’s life is stronger than our various experiences of death, and that God’s power is stronger than our weakness.

Those who refused to come were too busy. They had other priorities. It was too much trouble. It is the same today. We can find all sorts of excuses for not coming to the Eucharist on Sunday.

Matthew says that they "ignored" the invitation and "went away, one to his farm, another to his business." Luke's Gospel is more detailed on this point and presents the reasons for the refusal of the invitation thus: "I have purchased a field, and I must go look at it ... "I have purchased five yokes of oxen and am on my way to see them" ... "I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come" (Luke 14:18-20).

 What do these different people have in common? All have something urgent to do that cannot wait and demands their immediate attention. And what does the wedding feast represent? It indicates the messianic goods, participation in the salvation brought by Christ, and, therefore, the possibility of eternal life.

 

Neglecting the important for the urgent in our spiritual life means continually putting off our religious duties because something urgent always calls for our attention. It is Sunday, and it is time to go to Mass, but there is that visit, that work in the garden, that lunch to prepare, that ball game.# Mass can wait, lunch cannot; so you put Mass off and go to your stove. To neglect attending Mass with the community when there was no real excuse was a sign of a breakdown of our relationship with God and with each other.

It matters that we come to the Marriage Feast and do not stay away. It matters for ourselves personally, and it matters for the community. We need love – we need God’s love and, as Jesus said: ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you cannot have life in you’(Jn 6:53). The recent Catechism states: ‘The faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation unless excused for a serious reason. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin’(n.2181).

Even among the second lot of guests who were invited at the last minute and who accepted the unexpected invitation, there was at least one who showed a lack of awareness by dressing down in a major way.  Acceptance of the invitation means a change of standards and values symbolized by being clothed in the garment that resembles and represents the Baptismal Garment of goodness and Christ-like living.  At the baptism of a child, the mother or the godmother is invited to clothe the newly baptized child with the wedding garment as the celebrant says, ‘You have been clothed with Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With family and friends to help you, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven. We have been clothed with Christ at baptism; there is an onus on us to retain that clothing as we go through life. Even though, through baptism, we have been invited to the wedding feast of God’s Son, even though we remain on God’s guest list as we go through life, that realization should never leave us complacent. We have to keep dressing appropriately to our honoured status; we have to keep putting on Christ. We are called to keep growing into the person of Christ.

Today, we are invited to stop and think what it is to which we are being invited. We are hungry and thirsty, and God, who loves us, is drawing us into the closest union conceivable here on earth. Jesus, the Bridegroom of our souls, wants to enter deep within us. Let’s be willing and ready, well dressed, to join the wedding feast.