I hope you paid careful attention to today’s readings, especially the first reading and the Gospel. If you did, you noticed that both of these readings tell of a wonderful banquet. Just reading the first line from Isaiah makes my mouth water: “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 wine.” Who wouldn’t want to join in that feast? But, we hear in the Gospel that those who are initially invited refuse to come. They’re too busy with their own plans or not interested or even hostile to those sent to invite them to the feast. After they reject their invitations, the host of the banquet sends out his servants to invite all and sundry, “good and bad alike.”
This great feast, described so powerfully in Isaiah, of juicy, rich foods and pure, choice wines — why would anyone refuse? Sadly, there are those whose eyes are not open to God’s abundance. In fact, when we come to worship around our Lord’s altar, I wonder how many of us fail to recognize the feast. Here we are invited to listen to the rich words from the Bible, through which God reveals himself to us, and then we are invited to receive the life-giving Body and Blood of Christ. Of course, if we are using only our natural senses, the fare may not seem quite so luscious. But, if we engage our spiritual senses, we become aware of the abundant offering before us. The readings we hear aren’t just stories of events that occurred centuries ago. They are, indeed, inspired words, that is, filled with the spirit of God that speak to each of us today. And, although the host we receive doesn’t have much natural flavor since it is made of unleavened bread, it is full of spiritual abundance. It is truly God who offers himself to us for spiritual nourishment. Tragically, we are often like the Jews of Jesus’ time, who were too busy satisfying their natural senses to be concerned about their spiritual welfare
And, if we listened very carefully to the Gospel, we noticed that there was a second part to the parable, where we heard of a harsh encounter between the host of the banquet and a poor man who showed up without his wedding garment. He was not only asked to leave, but bound hand and foot and cast out into the darkness.
Of course the point here is not style. In those days, kings and noblemen would have wardrobe rooms filled with garments for their guests – many of whom did not have the means on their own to purchase appropriate garb for such occasions or who came from far away, traveling not with a suitcase on a plane but on foot or horseback with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The point to this second part of today’s Gospel is that just showing up isn’t enough. We must be willing to accept the garments the king provides so we can be properly clothed for the special occasion.
It’s easy to recognize that this parable in today’s Gospel is allegorical and each aspect of the story has a deeper meaning. The king represents God our heavenly Father who invites us to share in the great wedding feast of his Son. Elsewhere in the New Testament we learn that we – Church – are the bride of Christ, who has espoused himself to us with his new and everlasting covenant. And, he has clothed us in holiness as he has shown us the way back to his Father in heaven.
The invited guests who refuse to come represented in Jesus’ time the Jews who refused to recognize who he was – the Son of God. And, the ones who eventually did accept the invitation – “the bad and the good” that we hear about in today’s Gospel – are the tax collectors and prostitutes we heard Jesus speak about a few weeks ago who had come to recognize who Jesus really was – their savior. The man who came not properly dressed represented the ones who might have accepted Jesus for who he was but weren’t ready to follow his teachings, that is, as St. Paul calls us to do in another passage, to put on Christ.
This parable speaks to each of us today. Sometimes, we refuse to come to our Lord’s banquet – the Mass – because we are too busy with our everyday activities. Or, we’re willing to come but insist on doing so on our terms, not God’s. We haven’t put on the Lord Jesus Christ and allowed him to be our savior; we’re convinced that we can do it on our own.
As we prepare to celebrate our annual 40 Hours Eucharistic Devotion – it begins next Sunday – I invite you to reflect on how enthusiastically you have accepted God’s invitation. This would be a good time to come before the Lord exposed in the Blessed Sacrament and allow yourself to appreciate more fully this great gift that our God has given us – his only Son, who nourishes us on our journey to heaven. Bring your Bible with you to read and reflect on the passages that recall the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark or Luke, or the great Bread of Life Discourse in the early part of John’s Gospel. Become aware, once again, that our God has, indeed, invited us to drink deeply of the great mystery of our faith – his presence in our midst under the forms of bread and wine.
Today’s Gospel ends with the strong admonition: “Many are called but few are chosen.” This is an obvious reference to the end of our lives and the end of time. We have all been called – invited to share in the eternal, heavenly banquet. But, we must accept the invitation and be properly prepared when the final invitation comes at the end of our lives. Then, we will be chosen to join with all the saints around our Lord’s Table. Otherwise, we will join the man in today’s gospel, thrown into “the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” It’s our choice; let us choose well. The feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wine awaits us.