RSVPS and wedding garments

Homily for 28^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2014

Isaiah 25:6-10: Philippians 4:12-14.19-20; Matthew 22:1-14

Introduction

Having lived in New Orleans now for a few years, I have learnt that you don’t need a reason to have a party.  New Orleans is known all over for its good food, its daiquiris and its partying.  But why do we enjoy our food and drink so much?

Now some people think that we New Orleanians are gluttons and drunkards.  But I think the reason we treasure our food and drink is because we know that eating and drinking together builds fellowship in the family and among friends.  Whether it is the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, whether it is Grandma’s Sunday dinner or the family evening meal, we know that it is not just about the food or drink; it is about sharing fellowship and communion.

Scripture and Theology

We can therefore appreciate why Jesus often speaks about eating and drinking in the many parables he tells, including today’s parable about the King’s wedding feast.  We can appreciate why Jesus actually shared in many meals and banquets not only with his followers and friends, but also with sinners and the Pharisees, so much so that they call him a glutton and a drunkard.  Like us, Jesus knows that the family that eats together stays together.

And so, he uses banquets to teach us about the Kingdom of God and how we can get there.  You see heaven is a spiritual reality that is really difficult to explain with words.  But the example of a banquet comes close to explaining it.  Like the king in the parable invited his friends to share in the joyful wedding of his son, God also invites us to share the joy life with him in heaven.

Several hundred years earlier, as we heard in the first reading, Isaiah had also described heaven in terms of a banquet.  He said: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines . . . .”

But today’s parable does not just describe what heaven is like; the parable also describes three kinds of RSVPs, three kinds of responses, representing three possible human responses to God’s invitation to eternal life.

1.    The first group of invited guests turn down the invitation, one because he is going to his farm do and the other to his business, and others still kill the messengers.  This group represents all those who rejected Jesus and had him killed, especially the Pharisees and Priests.

2.    The second group of guests are those whom the servants bring in from the streets, both the good and bad.  Yes, both the good and bad are invited to the feast, just as Jesus invites to the Kingdom, both the virtuous and sinners.  Some of the bad change their lives and become committed to the Lord, such as the tax-collectors and prostitutes who became his disciples.

3.    In this new group of guests, however, there is a man not wearing a wedding garment.  This one guest represents those who responded to the invitation of Jesus, but failed to live by his teaching, such as Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord.

Christian Life

We Christians today have also received an invitation to a banquet.  On the night before he died Jesus instituted the Eucharist and told us: do this in memory of me.  Jesus invites us to the Mass to share in his Word and in his Body and Blood.  The Mass is a concrete sign for us of the great banquet we shall have with God in heaven.  The Mass gives us, while we are still on this side of death, a real experience of what heaven will be like.

How do we respond to this invitation, to Mass and to heaven, which Mass represents?  Like the three types of responses in the parable, we also respond in three different ways.

1.    Sadly survey after survey reports that only 30% of Catholics in this country come to Sunday Mass regularly. The rest, the 70%, refuse this invitation to share in the Word of God and in his life-giving Body and saving cup. 

2.    But we the 30% that come to Mass can be further divided into those that come to Mass wearing a wedding garment and those that don’t.  What is the wedding garment for Mass?  The wedding garment for Mass is something we wear both on the inside and on the outside.

a.    The wedding garment is love of God and neighbour. When we celebrate Mass, the sacrament of love we must also have love.  We must love God some much that we pray to him with devotion and reverence.  We must love our neighbour so much that we treat other people well, whether it is before Mass, during Mass and after Mass.

b.    This interior wedding garment of love is shown externally in how we present ourselves for Mass.  Do we keep the one-hour fast?  Do we come early and recollect ourselves?  Do we come dressed appropriately as this sacred occasion demands?  Are we texting at Mass or browsing our smartphones?  Do we chew gum at Mass?  Do we genuflect and bow, stand and kneel when we should?  Do we recite the prayers and sing the hymns?  Do we leave Church early, right after communion, to beat the parking lot traffic?

And so, simply coming to Mass is no guarantee that we have a healthy relationship with God.  We also need to wear the wedding garment of devotion to God and charity to our neighbour, interior attitudes that we express in our outward behaviour.

Conclusion

Let today’s gospel challenge each of us to ask ourselves: Which of the three types of guests am I?  Am I among those who refuse the invitation of Jesus?  Am I among those who accept the invitation but do not accept its conditions?  Or am I among those who accept the invitation fully and come to the wedding not only wearing the wedding garment, but also carrying wedding gifts?

Let us ask the Lord to give us the wisdom and courage, to respond to his invitation in the only way that leads to heaven, our true home.  We who know the great value of food and drink, especially when consumed together at a meal, party or banquet, do not want to miss out on the greatest banquet of all, life with God in heaven forever.