28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - October 9, 2011

Traducir al Español

Today’s hope and insight come clearly in the first reading. God has a feast prepared for those who hear his invitation and respond to it. There will be food in abundance. The banquet imagery was an apt metaphor for describing God’s salvific love. In an arid land where most of the population scraped by with the minimum of basic necessities, a free banquet of rich food and choice wines was tantamount to paradise. Also, on God’s holy mountain, he will provide an opportunity for forgiveness and healing, and destroy even death itself. Every tear will be wiped away. Heart and soul will feel love and the presence of lost loved ones. There will be only the joy of the banquet and the communion with those in heaven.

Do we know that we are invited? Have we heard that invitation in our lives – a call to come home; a welcoming gesture or word; loving mercy extended to us when we thought our sins unforgivable? A friend of mine sent me a text message that he was clean of drugs and alcohol for 15 years, thanks be to God! I love stories of hope and God’s love and mercy. I bet if you asked him 15 years ago, he would have told you he didn’t think he could do it. He was invited and chased by our loving God when he was at his worst! The Gospel makes it clear that the chosen are invited; and then those unlikely characters – sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes and alcoholics – are invited too! We are all invited. And Jesus throughout his life, demonstrated his love to all of God’s children – even the arrogant hard of heart who crucified him when he prayed on the cross that his Father forgive those who did that to him because they knew not what they were doing. The invitation is clear. What do we need to do to clear our ears out and hear God screaming his love to us, chasing after us with his mercy like the Father in the Prodigal Son Story when he sees his son at a distance coming home!

Although all are welcome at the great banquet of the kingdom, merely showing up is not sufficient. Proper attire (wedding garment) consists of living one’s faith in response to God’s promptings. Perhaps the man without the wedding garment could be compared to the foolish maidens who stood outside crying, “Lord, Lord!” in an effort to gain entrance to the wedding feast. In both cases, a lack of preparation, or the absence of a faith lived out daily in responsiveness to God, resulted in a harsh judgment.

Most scripture scholars agree that the wedding garment mentioned in today’s Gospel symbolizes repentance and conversion. It is that ongoing preparation that must be embraced and lived. “Many are invited, but few are chosen!” The fact that everyone has been invited into the wedding banquet is not a guarantee that he or she will be able to stay there. Matthew is telling his community that entering into the kingdom of God requires conversion. Just being physically present is not enough. Without the proper conversion one will be rejected.

We need to be aware of those attitudes that act as impediments to repentance and conversion. And then we need to discard them with an honest heart. Do we have attitudes like: “I’m not as bad as some people, like criminals.” Or “I’m just not cut out to be holy.” Or, “I’m as good as I’m going to get, and it better be good enough.” Or Repentance is out of date; these days, we realize that God loves us unconditionally, so why repent?” These or other attitudes may impede us from being honest with our ongoing need of repentance and conversion. In a culture that is at best most of the time amoral if not immoral, it is easy to be de-sensitized to our sins, or even more basic, what a sin is.

Also, don’t forget that there are two sides of the moral life. One is to avoid sin. The other is to live and love as Christ. Neither is possible without the grace and help of Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we find ourselves discouraged, we need to ask for more grace. We might need a retreat or a change in prayer. By all means, we must never forget the infinite love and mercy and compassion of our LOVING God. We can’t use that knowledge as a crutch to avoid conversion and repentance, but as the impetus to impel us into that mercy with an honest heart. Paul puts the garment of proactive moral living in wonderful perspective – using language consistent with a wedding garment. In Colossians, he writes in chapter 3, verses 12 – 15: “Because you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Over all of these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect. Christ’s peace must reign in your hearts since as members of the one body you have been called to that peace. Dedicate yourselves to thankfulness.”

There is no peace like that which comes from absolution in the sacrament of penance and from doing loving things and forgiving those who have hurt us. All of us are invited to enjoy the feast, to participate fully in it and to radiate that joy to others. Under various forms, Matthew never stops preaching that faith – the first response to the Lord’s invitation – is of no value if it does not translate into action. Today we must obey God in action, not just in word!