Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- You're Invited

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 10.15.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Matthew 22:1-14

Friends, today’s Gospel likens the kingdom of God
to a king who gives a wedding feast for his son.
The biblical authors couldn’t find a more apt metaphor
for the coming together of divinity and humanity than a wedding banquet.
God and humanity are married, and they are surrounded by joy,
peace, celebration, and good food.

What was Jesus’ strategy?
Open table-fellowship; outreach to all,
to the righteous and the unrighteous,
to the healthy and the sick, to the mainstream and the marginalized.
Here comes everybody.
You don’t have to be good to receive God’s grace;
that’s why they call it “grace.”

But then something puzzling emerges.
When the king comes to welcome his guests,
he finds someone not properly dressed:
“The king said to him,
‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’”
It was customary at the time (as it still is)
for people to come to a wedding dressed up.

The play here is between grace and works.
We can refuse the invitation altogether,
or we can refuse the transformation that should follow from grace.
We have to cooperate with grace,
donning the wedding garment of love,
forgiveness, peace, and nonviolence.

[MurphsLaw]

+++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."+++