BASED ON CATHOLIC LITURGICAL READINGS
28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
THEME: “THE GOOD NEWS”
((Readings: 1st: Isa 25:6-10; Ps:22; 2nd: Phil 4:12-14.19-20; Gos: Mt 22:1-14))
Today being the 28th Sunday in ordinary time, our mother church is proclaiming the good news of joy and hope to us about the good times ahead when the Lord himself will organize a banquet for his chosen one on the holy mountain to celebrate their victory over suffering and death. “On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will prepare for all people a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines. He will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, …He destroy death for ever. The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek; he will take away his people´s shame everywhere on earth, for the Lord has said so.” (Isa 25:6-9).
The banquet here represents the fullness happiness in God in the Kingdom of heaven, which is compared to a great feast organized by a King (God) to celebrate his son´s wedding. The bride is the Church and Jesus is the bridegroom. The servants who went to deliver the invitation represents the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles, and God´s messengers who were and still are being ignored, ridiculed, maltreated and killed. The invited guests are the humanity (worthy and unworthy), the chosen people who have always the excuses for not attending the banquet of the Lord.
Dear friends this is a universal invitation for people of all nations. However, although we are all invited there are few conditions to note regarding this feast of the Lord.
- HONOURING THE INVITATION
In today’s gospel, the parable of the wedding feast, teaches us that God has invited us all to his kingdom for a banquet. However, many of us, like the first invitees, have rejected God’s invitation due to the pursuit of worldly satisfaction and pleasure. We are too busy to respond to God’s invitation. There is no time for prayer, Mass and Adoration but we have time for the mundane, business, parties and our families. The consequences of rejecting God’s invitation are great. When God’s chosen people rejected His special invitation, He changed the Invitation Card to: “Everyone is cordially invited!”. Therefore, honoring God´s invitation every day is very crucial than our daily programs.
- THE WEDDING GARMENT
Although God has opened the gates for everyone to enter into the banquet, a wedding garment was mandatory for everyone without any excuse. Perhaps you are wondering like me; How did the King expect the new visitors picked from the streets and roadside to have a wedding Garment? This was an emergency invitation because the wedding was ready, the food was cooked, but those who were invited proved to be unworthy and failed to come.
If you remember, during your baptism, you were given a white cloth, a symbol of purity of life and you were instructed to keep it safe and unstained until the last day. This was the wedding garment that was given to you. Have you stained it already? Or you are wearing dirty rags of sinful life? The wedding garment is normally stained by living sinful life, adultery, hatred, etc. We are invited to quickly wash our garment with the sacrament of penance and be prepared because the invitation to go and be with the Lord will come to you suddenly and unexpectedly wherever it will find you. A severe punishment will be inflicted on those found in the feast without proper wedding-garment.
- THE FORETASTE OF THIS BANQUET
The Eucharistic celebration is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet that will be prepared for us by God at the end of time in his Kingdom. How do you participate in the Mass? Do you honor the invitation and do you prepare yourself well to partake in the banquet worthily? Do you regularly wash your garment in the sacrament of reconciliation or you receive the Holy communion in dirty rags of unforgiveness, and sins of all kind? If you cannot honor and partake the feast of the Lord prepared for us here on earth, do you think you will be worthy to participate in the heavenly banquet?
In brief dear brethren, The Mountain of the Lord is a symbol of Divine presence, the place and the house of prayer. We must regularly prepare ourselves well and climb this mountain in order to partake in God´s blessing, providence and favors. If we respond to this divine invitation, God will wipe away our tears and continuously strengthen us with his blessings.
PRAYER: In the Lord´s own house shall I dwell forever and ever. Amen
Fr. Antony Muchui, SVD
Blessed Sunday
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“May the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all People. Amen”
SVD JAMBO KENTAN 