28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A); October 15, 2023

Is 25:6-10a.  Ps 23.  Phil 4:12-20.  Mt 22:1-14

Deacon Jim McFadden

         The parable we hear in today’s Gospel focuses on a royal wedding party, which will tell us a lot about the Kingdom of God.  The central character is the king’s son, the bridegroom whom we can easily identify as Jesus.  The parable makes no reference to the bride, but does pay attention to the guests who were invited, and those who wore wedding garments.  Consider yourself invited because the Lord wants to celebrate the wedding with you.  He wants to inaugurate a lifelong personal relationship with you, an intimate I-Thou communion that is meant to endure forever.  Jesus is the bridegroom and you are that unnamed bride; in other words, Jesus wants to marry you; he wants you to fall in love with him. 

         So, God is preparing the entire human family to participate in the wonderful celebration and communion around the bridegroom, his only begotten Son.  Twice the invitation goes out to the invited guests, but they refuse. Why did the invited guests say “no”?  Were they awful, abject sinners?  Not really, they were ordinary folk who were simply caught up in their own affairs—they had “better” things to do, such as tending to their fields and business.  They were more interested in having something they thought was important—namely, the goods of the world—rather than risk something that the wedding demands.  You see, brothers and sisters, this is how love grows cold: it doesn’t necessarily happened out of malice but out of a preference for what is our own: my security, my status, my pleasure, my control.

          The king in the parable is basically getting stood up; nonetheless, he doesn’t want the wedding all to remain empty because he wants to offer the treasures of his kingdom.  God does not cancel the wedding feast!  God does not give up, but continues to invite.  When he hears a “no,” he does not shut down the gathering, but simply broadens the invitation.  So, he tells his servants: “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whoever you find” (Mt 22:9).  This is how God reacts to being rejected; rather than give up, he starts over and asks that all those found in the thoroughfares be called, excluding no one.  No one is excluded from the Wedding Feast.  No one.

            The original terms that Matthew uses to the limits of the roads refers to the area of the countryside that is outside the residential area, which is precarious.  Thus the banquet hall is filled with the “excluded”, those who are “outside”, those who never seemed to be worthy to partake in the Wedding Feast.  In fact, the master, the king, tells the messengers: “Call everyone, both good and bad.  Everyone!” (cf. v. 10).  Some of us may say, “Well, that can’t include me because I’ve really done some very bad things in my life.”  God is still calling you: “Come, come, come to the Feast!” We witnessed Jesus modeling this invitation as he dined with publicans, tax collectors, public sinners who were the “bad ones.”  God is not afraid of our spirits wounded by many cruelties either from others or self-inflicted because he loves us, he invites us just as we are.  That’s why the Gospel is not reserved for the select few. 

            The Gospel does end with a caveat: if we’re going to enter the Wedding Feast, we have to dress properly—we have to wear a wedding garment.  Since the bridegroom is love incarnate, that means we have to put on a wedding garment of love and mercy, which God freely gives us, namely, grace.  If we are going to step forward into the Christian life, we must humbly accept God’s grace.  It’s not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord; one must be open to a life of conversion, which changes the heart.  The garment of God’s mercy, which God offers us unceasingly, is the free gift of His love.  Theirs is nothing we can do to earn it, but we can gratefully receive it and share his love with others, especially those most in need.  And, this grace demands that we welcome it into our hearts with gratitude, astonishment, and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for having given me this great gift.  Thank you for inviting me to your Wedding Feast!”

            May Mary Most Holy help us to imitate the servants of the Gospel parable by emerging from our narrow and exclusive minds, proclaiming that the House of God is open to everyone.  No one is excluded.  Amen.