Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 08-19-04, Optional, St. John Eudes

From: Matthew 22:1-14

The Parable of the Marriage Feast

[1] And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, [2] "The kingdom
of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his
son, [3] and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the
marriage feast; but they would not come. [4] Again he sent other
servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made
ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything
is ready; come to the marriage feast.' [5] But they made light of it
and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, [6] while the
rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
[7] The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those
murderers and burned their city. [8] Then he said to his servants,
"The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. [9] Go
therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as
many as you find.' [10] And those servants went out into the streets
and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding
hall was filled with guests.

[11] "But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a
man who had no wedding garment; [12] and he said to him, 'Friend, how
did you get in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless.
[13] Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot,
and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash
their teeth.' [14] For many are called, but few are chosen."

Commentary:

1-14. In this parable Jesus reveals how intensely God the Father
desires the salvation of all men--the banquet is the Kingdom of heaven
--and the mysterious malice that lies in willingly rejecting the
invitation to attend, a malice so vicious that it merits eternal
punishment. No human arguments make any sense that go against God's
call to conversion and acceptance of faith and its consequences.

The Fathers see in the first invitees the Jewish people: in salvation
history God addresses himself first to the Israelites and then to all
the Gentiles (Acts 13:46).

Indifference and hostility cause the Israelites to reject God's loving
call and therefore to suffer condemnation. But the Gentiles also need to
respond faithfully to the call they have received; otherwise they will
suffer the fate of being cast "into outer darkness".

"The marriage", says St Gregory the Great ("In Evangelia Homiliae", 36)
"is the wedding of Christ and his Church, and the garment is the virtue
of charity: a person who goes into the feast without a wedding garment
is someone who believes in the Church but does not have charity."

The wedding garment signifies the dispositions a person needs for
entering the Kingdom of heaven. Even though he belongs to the Church,
if he does not have these dispositions he will be condemned on the day
when God judges all mankind. These dispositions essentially mean
responding to grace.

13. The Second Vatican Council reminds us of the doctrine of the "last
things", one aspect of which is covered in this verse. Referring to the
eschatological dimension of the Church, the Council recalls our Lord's
warning about being on the watch against the wiles of the devil, in
order to resist in the evil day (cf. Eph 6:13). "Since we know neither
the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch
constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is
completed (cf. Heb 9:27), we may merit to enter with him into the
marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed (cf. Mt 25:31-46) and
not, like the wicked and slothful servants (cf. Mt 25:26), be ordered
to depart into the eternal fire (cf. Mt 25:41), into the outer darkness
where "men will weep and gnash their teeth'" ("Lumen Gentium", 48).

14. These words in no way conflict with God's will that all should be
saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4). In his love for men, Christ patiently seeks the
conversion of every single soul, going as far as to die on the cross
(cf. Mt 23:37; Lk 15:4-7). St Paul teaches this when he says that
Christ loved us and "gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2). Each of us can assert with the Apostle
that Christ "loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). However,
God in his infinite wisdom respects man's freedom: man is free to
reject grace (cf. Mt 7:13-14).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

The Word Among Us

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Meditation
Ezekiel 36:23-28

What a faithful God we have! Though Ezekiel was speaking to the Israelites of God’s mercy and power in their time, his words also speak to future generations of the restoring and cleansing power of the cross of Christ and about the free gift of the Holy Spirit.

You know the saying that others will judge you by how you live. This was the case with the Israelites when God decided to take matters into his own hands. They were giving him a bad name, and his reputation was at stake. The Israelites had strayed far from God’s commands, taking on the customs and idol worship of the pagan lands which they inhabited. How could anyone believe in Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, if his people were indistinguishable from the surrounding population?

But despite the people’s infidelity and the poor witness they were giving, God still loved them deeply and grieved for the way they had strayed from him. He saw their weakness and he promised to give them his very own Spirit to guide and empower them. Just as at creation God had the power to create a heart for Adam and breathe life into him, so now he would bring about a radical transformation in the hearts and minds of his chosen people (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

All of us who are baptized have received the Holy Spirit. And with this gift, we have received the power to do what we often find hard to do on our own. For example, when confusion or deceit cloud our thinking, we can call upon the Spirit to help show us the way. Or when we find ourselves facing strong temptations, we can ask the Spirit to pray with Jesus, “Not my will, Father, but yours be done.” Jesus promised that he would never abandon us or leave us orphans. He promised that the Holy Spirit would come to remain with us always. The promises spoken by Ezekiel centuries ago are still in force—and we are heirs of that promise! The Holy Spirit—God himself—is always available to us. Let’s never give up hope!

“Holy Spirit, I stand in awe of your presence in my life. Thank you for the times you nudge my conscience when I am tempted to go down a wrong path. You are truly my friend and my comforter.”

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	Would You Make It into the Banquet?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D
Date:	Thursday, August 19, 2004

Ez 36:23-28 / Mt 22:1-14

From time to time the media provide coverage of fantastic parties all over the world, and many of us watch with fascination from a distance. Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball is still talked about decades after the event. Malcolm Forbes’s $5 million birthday party thrown in his own honor certainly caught our attention, as do the multi-million dollar weddings and birthdays that occur every year. You can be sure, there are very few no-shows at those events.

That’s why the negative response to the king’s banquet in today’s gospel seems at first glance so strange. The invitations were ignored or brushed off with the vaguest of excuses. And when some guests were finally gathered, one of them ignored the most basic of courtesies and barged around the party in his dusty work clothes, not even bothering to don one of the wedding garments that were provided free at the door.

The whole story seems bizarre until we recognize that the king’s banquet is in fact the banquet of life to which God has invited us all. It’s a banquet to be enjoyed and shared with our Father and with all His family. And the only price of admission is an open, caring heart, which too many of the invited guests simply didn’t have.

So there we have today’s question: What’s the state of your heart? Would it get you into the banquet? Would it keep you there?

One Bread, One Body

All Issues > Volume 20, Number 5

<< Thursday, August 19, 2004 >>

St. John Eudes

Ezekiel 36:23-28

Psalm 51

Matthew 22:1-14

View Readings

THE PROPHECY WHICH IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE

“I will sprinkle clean water upon you.” —Ezekiel 36:25

The Lord promised through the prophet Ezekiel: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you” (Ez 36:25). The Lord promised us a total purification far beyond any purification ever attempted. This purification will be part of a change of human nature. We can be born again (see Jn 3:3, 5). The Lord promised: “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts” (Ez 36:26). Our new nature will not only be new, but we will even be made sharers in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4). The Lord then suggested that He would live within us. He promised: “I will put My Spirit within you and make you live by My statutes” (Ez 36:27). Through our Baptism, we will live in the Holy Trinity and the Trinity will live in us (see Jn 17:23).

The purpose of life is to receive the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy in today’s first eucharistic reading. The purpose of life is to receive a new nature, to be born again by Baptism into Jesus, and to live that Baptism in total commitment to Jesus.

Let us thank the Lord always for the new birth in Baptism and the life of faith and faithfulness to the Lord. Let us love people enough to tell as many as possible about the purpose of life. “Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He Who in His great mercy gave us new birth” (1 Pt 1:3).

Prayer: Father, send me the Holy Spirit to teach me the radical newness of my baptized life in Jesus (see Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People, Pope John Paul II, 10).

Promise: “The invited are many, the elect are few.” —Mt 22:14

Praise: St. John lived out his new nature not only in his preaching zealously the Good News, but in the way he lovingly cared for the sick during epidemic outbreaks.

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

August 19, 2004

St. John Eudes

(1601-1680)

How little we know where God’s grace will lead. Born on a farm in northern France, John died at 79 in the next “county” or department. In that time he was a religious, a parish missionary, founder of two religious communities and a great promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

He joined the religious community of the Oratorians and was ordained a priest at 24. During severe plagues in 1627 and 1631, he volunteered to care for the stricken in his own diocese. Lest he infect his fellow religious, he lived in a huge cask in the middle of a field during the plague.

At age 32, John became a parish missionary. His gifts as preacher and confessor won him great popularity. He preached over 100 parish missions, some lasting from several weeks to several months.

In his concern with the spiritual improvement of the clergy, he realized that the greatest need was for seminaries. He had permission from his general superior, the bishop and even Cardinal Richelieu to begin this work, but the succeeding general superior disapproved. After prayer and counsel, John decided it was best to leave the religious community. The same year he founded a new one, ultimately called the Eudists (Congregation of Jesus and Mary), devoted to the formation of the clergy by conducting diocesan seminaries. The new venture, while approved by individual bishops, met with immediate opposition, especially from Jansenists and some of his former associates. John founded several seminaries in Normandy, but was unable to get approval from Rome (partly, it was said, because he did not use the most tactful approach).

In his parish mission work, John was disturbed by the sad condition of prostitutes who sought to escape their miserable life. Temporary shelters were found but arrangements were not satisfactory. A certain Madeleine Lamy, who had cared for several of the women, one day said to him, “Where are you off to now? To some church, I suppose, where you’ll gaze at the images and think yourself pious. And all the time what is really wanted of you is a decent house for these poor creatures.” The words, and the laughter of those present, struck deeply within him. The result was another new religious community, called the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge.

He is probably best known for the central theme of his writings: Jesus as the source of holiness, Mary as the model of the Christian life. His devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary led Pius XI to declare him the father of the liturgical cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Comment:

Holiness is the wholehearted openness to the love of God. It is visibly expressed in many ways, but the variety of expression has one common quality: concern for the needs of others. In John’s case, those who were in need were plague-stricken people, ordinary parishioners, those preparing for the priesthood, prostitutes and all Christians called to imitate the love of Jesus and his mother.

Quote:

“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires and his disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly” (St. John Eudes, The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls).

Thursday August 19, 2004 Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading (Ezekiel 36:23-28) Gospel (St. Matthew 22:1-14)

In the Gospel reading today, Our Lord speaks to us about this wedding banquet. We recall that heaven is a wedding banquet; it is the feast of the wedding banquet of the Lamb. And being that it is exactly that, Our Lord is telling us who has been invited to the banquet. It was, of course, the chosen people first and foremost who were invited to this banquet, but they refused. Now in the first reading, God says to the chosen people, I am going to prove My holiness through you. It is precisely because of their infidelity that God is going to bring them back from all of the lands to which they were exiled, take away their hearts of stone, and give them natural hearts to be able to love God. This was to prove the holiness of God – and it did – but the people of Israel did not accept it. Initially, there was great rejoicing when they came back, but then they fell right back into the same old stuff. And so, as it says, God sends a second set of people and they killed them. They were all the prophets that they had killed over the years. So then God invites the ones who were not invited initially, the ones who were just out on the highways and the byways, and they came and filled the hall. That’s us.

But we also have to recognize (with that being the case and we are now privileged to be invited to the banquet) that it still requires that we need to have on a wedding garment. It is not enough just to be able to say, “I have been invited. The ones originally invited have turned down the invitation, those who were considered worthy to be invited have rejected it, but now God in His mercy, because He wanted heaven filled, has invited the likes of me. Well, isn’t this a great privilege?” Of course it is, but then it requires something on our part. In order to get into the wedding banquet, one must be in the state of sanctifying grace; that is the wedding garment we must be wearing. If we are not in the state of sanctifying grace, we will have nothing to do with the banquet. We will get there, and we will be thrown out into the darkness where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. So we still have our part to do. We have received the invitation and we have even responded to the invitation, but if we do not put on the right kind of garments we are not going to be able to enter into the banquet.

That is what the Lord is requiring of us: to realize that we were not invited to the banquet because we were the best and most worthy, but we were invited to the banquet because those who were invited did not come. They turned down the king, and so we were the ones on the highways and byways and hedgerows that they had to go out and stir up to find somebody who would be willing to come. That’s us. But now we still have our part to do. The King has done His part. He has roused up those who were lying in the gutters – us – and He has filled His wedding banquet. But in order to get in, we have to grow in holiness, we have to be in the state of sanctifying grace, we have to be living the life that Our Lord has called us to live, and then what was promised to the people of old is going to be worked through us. That is, God is going to prove His holiness through us. All we have to do is say, “Who would have expected it? Who would have thought such a thing was possible for the likes of people like us?” No one. And if God in His mercy will take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh so that we will be able to love, so that we will be able to do what is right, that is where we will be able to enter into that banquet to unite ourselves with Christ, to live His life through sanctifying grace, to be united with Him in prayer.

That is the call and the privilege each one of us has. It is the greatest privilege in the world, but, as we saw in the Gospel reading, there are many, many people who have turned it down. It is now a question of what we are going to do. Many are called, few are chosen, the Lord said. You have been called to the wedding banquet. The choice now is yours to unite yourself with the Bridegroom, to put on the wedding garment of sanctifying grace, to allow God to remove the heart of stone which makes us completely selfish and caught up in the wrong things and replace that with a heart of flesh so we will be able as a good bride to love the Bridegroom with our whole heart and soul and strength, and be completely united with Him through the bonds of grace and the bonds of love so that we will be able to celebrate with the greatest joy the banquet of the Lamb forever.

Roman Missal | Douay Texts

Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage

.......................... †JMJ† ..........................
-- Thursday, 20th Week in Ordinary Time --
....................... † AMDG † .......................

FIRST READING – Ez 36:23-28
And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you

And I will sanctify my great name,
which was profaned among the Gentiles,
which you have profaned in the midst of them:
that the Gentiles may know that I am the Lord,
saith the Lord of hosts,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the Gentiles,
and will gather you together out of all the countries,
and will bring you into your own land.

And I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness,
and I will cleanse you from all your idols.

And I will give you a new heart,
and put a new spirit within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit in the midst of you:
and I will cause you to walk in my commandments,
and to keep my judgments, and do them.

And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers,
and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

REPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 50 (51):12-13, 14-15, 18-19
Effúndam super vos aquam mundam,
et mundabímini ab omnibus inquinaméntis vestris.
R: Ez 36:25
And I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness

Create a clean heart in me, O God:
and renew a right spirit within my bowels.
Cast me not away from thy face;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
And I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.
I will teach the unjust thy ways:
and the wicked shall be converted to thee.
And I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness

Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall extol thy justice.
O Lord, thou wilt open my lips:
and my mouth shall declare thy praise.
And I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness

For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it:
with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.
A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit:
a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
And I will pour upon you clean water,
and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness

ALLELUIA – Ps 94 (95): 8
Hódie, nolíte obduraáre corda vestra, sed vocem Dómini audíte.
R. Alleluia, alleluia
Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia

GOSPEL – Mt 22:1-14
Go ye therefore into the highways;
and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage

And Jesus answering, spoke again in parables to them, saying:

The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king,
who made a marriage for his son.
And he sent his servants, to call them that were invited to the marriage;
and they would not come.

Again he sent other servants, saying:
Tell them that were invited,
Behold, I have prepared my dinner;
my beeves and fatlings are killed,
and all things are ready: come ye to the marriage.

But they neglected, and went their own ways,
one to his farm, and another to his merchandise.

And the rest laid hands on his servants,
and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death.

But when the king had heard of it,
he was angry, and sending his armies,
he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city.

Then he saith to his servants:
The marriage indeed is ready;
but they that were invited were not worthy.
Go ye therefore into the highways;
and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage.

And his servants going forth into the ways,
gathered together all that they found, both bad and good:
and the marriage was filled with guests.

And the king went in to see the guests:
and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment.

And he saith to him:
Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?
But he was silent.

Then the king said to the waiters:
Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness:
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.