This Sunday’s Gospel should be familiar to you by now, after all we’ve already written about this story many times in the past. But since it is the topic in today’s Gospel, we must talk about this again. It is the Parable of the Wedding Feast which you can read in the Bible on Matt. 22:1-14.
“Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a King who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. 4 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.’”
5 Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. 6 The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The King was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. 9 Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
10 The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. 11 But when the King came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. 12 He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came not dressed in a wedding garment? But he was reduced to silence. 13 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.”
Once more the Lord Jesus Christ uses parables or metaphors to show some kind of parallelism about the Kingdom of Heaven, in the hope that it would be easier understood by those who listen to him. Today’s reading is similar to last Sunday’s Parable of the Tenants or the Workers in the Vineyard… or even the Parable of the Two Sons, which we have discussed quite thoroughly a few consequent Sundays ago.
That God the Father first invited the Jewish people is something all Christians already know, which is why we call them our brothers… the first born of God. But this parable tells us that when the Wedding Feast was ready, the fatted calves and cattle already slaughtered, butchered and ready for cooking, all that was needed to do is call the invited guests to the banquet… after all there would be no feast without any guests.
But instead of honoring the king with their attendance, the invited guests showed no eagerness but even contempt to attend the king’s banquet. In sort, they have more important things to do. Let me point out that weddings in Palestine in ancient times (though some places in the Middle East still practice it) are a weeklong event that often took the time of the invited guests. It is unlike weddings today like here at home where it usually takes most of the afternoon and into the evening.
The richer the family holding a wedding feast, the more festive is the atmosphere and the more invited guests you will meet. In this parable, it is the king who is holding a wedding feast and therefore it is expected that his most important subjects would be the first to be invited to the feast and since he is the ruler, those who were the first to get the invitation, they should have given their time to be at the wedding feast. But as the story goes, those who were invited first did not show any respect to the king and even mistreated and killed his servants who announced that the wedding feast was ready.
As we already said, those who were invited first were the Jews, but they did not respond to the king’s invitation. You can read stories of how the Jews treated the prophets that God sent to them, down to the last one, St. John the Baptist. Hence the king ordered his servants to invite anyone that they see along the main road, even those who are not worthy of his company perhaps to spite those who refused his invitation. That is where we Gentiles come into the picture of what Christianity is today.
If you didn’t know, every now and then, the Lord sends out his invitation to join his feast, but the meal is no longer a fatted calf, but the Holy Eucharist… which, we Catholics have been taught since 2,000 years ago, is truly the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ … his body, blood, soul and divinity. But do we accept the Lord’s invitation, which usually comes from his modern day servants or do we act like the Jews in ancient times?
You may ask, who are these modern day servants? They could come from the Couples for Christ, BLD, Oasis of Love or the Knights of Columbus! Perhaps today is a good time to ask yourself… have you been invited by God’s servants to join his banquet? If so, how did you respond? Did you answer God’s servant in a contemptuous way or were you just too busy to honor the Lord’s invitation? That God invited you is already a great honor!
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