28th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

Sunday 15 October 2023
Matt 22:1-14

“Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son’”
(Matt 22:1-2).

This is the destination of history: a wedding feast. The king (the Father), is preparing arc of history toward the wedding of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Everything that we are and do enters in to this vast prospect. However it is easy to become distracted from this eschatological vision, because we’re distracted by incidentals and don’t contemplate on this final reality, which is joyful and motivational, bearing hope. Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, came as Israel’s Messiah and has manifest His salvation by giving His whole self. But He also promised His return, as BRIDEGROOM.

The arc of time from the first to the second coming is the time of the Church, the community of the saved on its pilgrimage walk on this earth towards the finishing line: the wedding feast of the Lamb.

The parable continues: the king sends his servants out, two different times, to call the invited guests. Despite the prospect of a rich and inviting menu, most seem not to be interested, because they are busy with their own affairs. The routine of life provokes a sort of drug-induced stupor, acting as an anaesthetic and diverts our gaze from the final goal. How often we listen to the Word of God, but it doesn’t take root… Furthermore, our immersion in the atmosphere of indifference extinguishes enthusiasm and amazement.

Another section of the invitees respond with aggression and arrogance, and mistreats the king’s servants to the point of killing them. There isn’t only indifference and disinterest. There is also aversion and even violence in the face of the Good News, in response to the invitation to the wedding feast.

In the end, the king again sends servants to invite everyone without distinction, so much so that the wedding hall is filled with guests. The Church is open to everyone. However, it is not enough just to be invited. We must also be elected, meaning to adhere to the call by putting the Word of God into practice, stripping ourselves of our old life with its evil desires and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ!

Let’s allow ourselves to be fully caught up in the reality of our destiny – the wedding-feast of the Lamb and with the Lamb – to live and serve with ever-greater enthusiasm and zeal!

Fr. Giuseppe