Homily: 28th Sunday A: Come to the Feast!

An engaged couple who will get married soon told me that last Friday night

they took their parents out, his mother and her mother and father

not for a movie or dinner though. They went to a bakery to taste wedding cakes.

They sat at a table and tasted samples of cakes. After each sample they would sip some water and taste another. They tried about five or six cakes

and then all agreed on one they liked best. Now, that was just their wedding cake!

Imagine, and I am sure many of you know from experience,

how much time, decision-making and planning will go into other aspects of the wedding: church ceremony, location for the reception, choice of the wedding party,

guest lists, table seating, food, flowers, musicians and more.

In the parable of today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about a royal wedding,

which requires much more preparation yet. Plus, it is a national event!

In the first century, as well as in the present e.g. in the UK, it is a great honor

to be invited to a royal wedding. Jesus’ listeners must have shaken their heads in unbelief about the invited who refused to attend this great event!

This is, of course, Jesus’ interpretation of his own ministry

and of that of the prophets before him.

In Matthew’s gospel, we find this parable during the last week of Jesus earthly life.

He has already made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem,

but senses that the mood of the people will change.

He has already told the parable of the wicked servants

who kill even the son of the landowner; we heard it last Sunday;

it clearly indicates what is going to happen to him.

What stands out in today’s parable is the magnitude of the gift!

Being invited to a royal wedding! It’s a Divine gift.

And that gift shone forth in Jesus’ ministry. He taught with authority.

He healed the sick and delivered folks from the power of evil.

He showed people, especially the poor and the downtrodden, their royal dignity.

God’s gifts promised for the end of time became a present reality in him.

He himself is the king, the Messiah-King.

However, many were not ready to receive the gift.

The whole bible is one big love story, starting with Adam and Eve,

whom God loved into being and created for love. In the Song of Songs,

the bride, representing God’s people, longs to be united with her Divine lover.

Today’s reading from Isaiah holds out God’s promise

of a great feast of God for all peoples,

when God will wipe away the tears from all faces and destroy death forever.

Part of this love story is that human beings choose to turn away from their lover.

They get captured in sin. But this is not the end.

The good news is that in Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection,

we have been rescued, healed and saved in the deepest sense!

This is amazing! Only this makes the great wedding feast possible!

My sisters and brothers, what matters first and foremost is God’s gift to us

in Jesus Christ. We only have to receive it and to appreciate it. We can live from it.

The starting point is prayer. One of the bible’s most beautiful prayers

comes to us in today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 23.

In it we can express our trust and our confidence that we are guided –

whether we rest on green pastures or walk through the dark valley!

We are never alone and do not have to succumb to fear.

Responding to God’s invitation to come to the banquet also impacts

the way we live and the way we practice charity. 

• When, for instance, we listen attentively to another and in our listening

 strengthen and encourage that person, we are choosing to come to God’s banquet. 

• When we help clothe the poor, feed the hungry, and shelter the homeless,

 we are choosing to come to God’s banquet. 

• When we vote according to our conscience and with respect

for the dignity of all people, we are choosing to come to God’s banquet.

In today’s second reading, there is one of my favorite sentences of the whole bible:

“I can do everything through him who strengthens me.” (2x)

May the Eucharist we share give us a foretaste

of that joyful royal wedding banquet in of heaven. May it heal us, transform us,

and strengthen us for our journey as disciples of Jesus.

                                                                                                                               AMEN.

- Fr. Thomas, OSB