Reading 1
On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
a feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples,
the web that is woven over all nations;
he will destroy death forever.
The Lord GOD will wipe away
the tears from every face;
the reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.
On that day it will be said:
"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!"
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
Gospel
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people
in parables, saying,
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants
to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast."'
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.'
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?'
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'
Many are invited, but few are chosen."
Reflection
When we hear today’s Gospel, we are astonished at the invited guests who ignore the wedding feast, and appalled at those who mistreat and kill the King’s messengers. It seems absurd that anyone would refuse something so good for something so inferior. Yet every sin we commit is a form of that same foolishness.
The philosopher Peter Kreeft has called sin “insanity.” Sin prefers something finite to something infinitely good. Isaiah tells us what infinite goods await: “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” What meager scraps are we choosing instead? In what ways have we turned down the invitation to the wedding feast of Heaven?
The second half of the parable exposes another danger: presumption. One guest accepts the invitation but arrives without a wedding garment. He wants to enjoy the banquet without actually honoring the King’s Son. For this presumption, he is bound and cast out. Likewise, calling ourselves Christian does not exempt us from living as Christians. True desire to follow Christ demands action. It demands that we bear fruit.
Some scholars have theorized that the King was providing the wedding garments Himself, and so the guest who did not wear one was not just unprepared but had rejected his host. Whether or not this was the custom, it is a theological truth. We are not left to our own devices to prepare ourselves for Heaven. God provides everything we need to bear fruit in the world—to act like His children. We only need to cooperate with Him.
The Gospel concludes: “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” God wants all people to enjoy paradise with Him—it is why He created us. All are invited, “bad and good alike.” However, faith and love are not mere words or hollow performances. For faith to be truly alive and for charity to exist at all, they must change the way we live.
At every Mass, we hear our invitation to the feast: “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” The Holy Eucharist is a foretaste of the wedding feast of Heaven. Let us come to it properly attired in our wedding garments: having examined our consciences, confessed serious sins, and accepted God’s continual offer of grace. Nourished by this heavenly food, and regularly seeking to clothe ourselves in Christ, we hope to be ready when God’s call to Heaven comes. Then, at the end of our days, we will pray with the words of Isaiah: “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!”
Please be assured of my prayers for you before Our Lord, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
+ Bishop Schlert
Copy Permalink
