GOSPEL COMMENTARY MT 22: 1-14
Come to the wedding feast
Fr. Jack Peterson, YA
“The kingdom of God may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” So begins a parable that Jesus directs to the chief priests and the elders of the people. God, our Father, wants us to celebrate with Him the marriage of His Son, Jesus, with His bride, the church. It is a great moment in time, truly worth celebrating with great gusto. As at all weddings, the Father wants the celebration to be filled with joy, with plenty of singing and dancing. The king also provides the guests with a banquet; He wants to fill the guests with good things. This promise is fulfilled beyond comprehension at the Eucharistic table at which God feeds us with His very self.
Jesus states that the king sends out his servants three times to invite the guests to the feast. This biblical number is enormously important, pointing us to God’s extraordinary generosity. The first time the servants go out, they are ignored. The second time, the servants are mistreated and killed. How sad. We, God’s invited guests, can be so blind and selfish, blind to the goodness and beauty of God, blind in our own selfish little worlds. That blindness and selfishness can build up over time and lead to truly evil acts. Yet the king sends out his servants a third time. God never stops inviting us to conversion and newness of life. He deeply desires every person to come to His banquet.
At the end, Jesus’ parable takes an interesting turn. The king, after beating the bushes to invite everyone, notices one man without a wedding garment and casts him out of the banquet. After working so hard to get everyone there, why would the king be so concerned about his attire? One answer is that God desires some minimal response to show gratitude for His generous invitation. He desires that we make the effort to round up a wedding garment, even if it is old or borrowed. God seeks a human response from us, an expression of gratitude for the offer to share in His life and joy.
Reflecting upon this parable, how can we not pause and ask ourselves a question: Am I living my life as a grateful response to the goodness of God? Does gratitude course through my veins like life-giving blood? We cannot give back to God anything that resembles what He has given to us (life itself, His friendship, the world to cultivate, His mercy, the gift of eternal life), but we can be people who thank Him profoundly through lives of loving service inspired by gratitude.
This week, the church in the United States celebrates National Vocation Awareness Week. It is an opportunity for us as a nation to discuss, pray for and encourage vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life. Dioceses, parishes and communities around the country will offer opportunities for education, prayer and discernment to encourage those called by God to respond according to His will. The fostering of vocations requires the involvement of every member of the church. We, as the people of God, must find ways to create an environment in our homes, schools and parishes where vocations are seen as a beautiful gift from God, nourished by prayer and sound faith formation, and encouraged by adults and friends who grasp the value of a life given completely to God for the sake of the kingdom.
Pope Francis, in his November 2013 apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium,” focused on the task of building a culture of vocations. He wrote: “The fraternal life and fervor of the community can awaken in the young a desire to consecrate themselves completely to God and to preaching of the Gospel. This is particularly true if such a living community prays insistently for vocations and courageously proposes to its young people the path of special consecration.”
Our Lord’s parable for today speaks directly to the gift of a vocation. Those called by God, our Heavenly King, to dedicate their lives and their energies to building the kingdom must see this courageous response principally as a profound act of gratitude. God creates us in love, redeems us in love, gifts us in love and calls us in love to bring that same love, mercy and truth into a hurting world. Bring your wedding garment.
Fr. Peterson is assistant chaplain at Marymount University in Arlington and director of the Youth Apostles Institute in McLean.
Year A - 28th Sunday in ordinary time
Invite everyone you can find to the wedding
Matthew 22:1-14
1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:
2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.
3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.
4 Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'
5 But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business,
6 while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.
7 The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
8 Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
9 Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.'
10 Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe,
12 and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless.
13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
14 For many are called, but few are chosen."
(NRSV)
Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus
In this parable the kingdom of heaven is compared to a great wedding banquet given by a king to his son. The king is my heavenly father; the bride is the Church, the people of God. The banquet is the Holy Eucharist; the feast is the everlasting life and glory that God offers to everyone.
The call to holiness is made to everyone from Adam to the last man. It is a call to realize that you are invited to become children of God, you are presented a great banquet and all are invited.
In the parable you may see the frustration of the king who having invited everyone to such an important feast, has been rejected. God has offered eternal happiness to all mankind; He has sent prophets and laborers of his kingdom to be his witnesses. He has ultimately sent me, his only begotten son, his own word to save you from your sins and to ask you once again to take part in the offering of your maker.
But how deaf can you be, how senseless can you be to my wisdom, how attached to your sinfulness and your earthly possessions. You prefer to live in the mud, like pigs that find no pleasure in cleanliness. You throw yourselves in the arms of your father the devil as you reject God and his commandments.
You live for the world and for yourselves, you are blind, you are deaf, you are mute, you are paralyzed, therefore you are completely dead to me.
I am the all patient, all loving, all merciful and life giving God who loves you despite your stupidity. I want to save you all, I will insist until the last moment of your lives.
You, who understand my feelings, unite yourself to my desires; pray for the sinner to convert, and pray for all mankind to benefit from my infinite goodness.
I am calling everyone to repent, to amend their lives, to come to me and to know me so that they may live eternally in my kingdom.
Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary