15 Oct 2023 – 28th Sunday, (A)
15 Oct 2023 – 28th Sunday, (A)
By baptism we have been called to salvation, and to take our place in the future kingdom of God. Somehow, we must get a wedding garment, so as to take our place at the wedding feast. Our eucharist recalls that invitation and prompts us to reflect on how we are doing. But it is not all our own work, as Paul reminds us. It is God’s grace that prompts us to a worthy life, despite human weakness; we can do all things through him who strengthens us
(1) Isaiah 25:6-10
The image of a banquet symbolises the blessings God has in store for His People
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.
Responsorial: Psalm 22
R./: I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
The Lord is my shepherd;
there is nothing I shall want.
Fresh and green are the pastures
where he gives me repose.
Near restful waters he leads me,
to revive my drooping spirit. (R./)
He guides me along the right path;
he is true to his name,
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
no evil would I fear.
You are there with your crook and your staff;
with these you give me comfort. (R./)
You have prepared a banquet for me
in the sight of my foes.
My head you have anointed with oil;
my cup is overflowing. (R./)
Surely goodness and kindness
shall follow me all the days of my life.
In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for ever and ever. (R./)
(2) Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
Paul tries not to depend on material things, but trusts in the Lord for what he needs
I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress. And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14
God is like a king who invites us to a banquet. Many refuse their invitation
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Tomorrow’s World
What does tomorrow hold for us? What is there to hope for? Often our imagination projects into the future. As children, we wondered “What will it be when like when we grow up?” Parents promised new freedoms and new possibilities “When you are older.” Human nature lives in vital tension between the Already and the Not Yet.
As adults we may indeed have to trim down and focus our hopes and fantasies into more precise channels, with the passing years. But we are still gripped with interest in what lies ahead–not just for oneself and family, but for the wider society and world. What steps in science and technology lie just around the corner? How will society develop, between now and the year 2050? The changing balance between richer and poorer countries; the unstable marital climate of our own nation; proposed educational changes and law reforms; new employment initiatives; the provision of better medical and recreational facilities –all are subject to our keen analysis and hopeful projections.
Elderly people may ponder more on the past than the future and to dwell on bygone events and treasured relationships. Their looking forward is more often marked with resignation or anxiety than with hope. In the dignity of their mature years, they accept that “Che sera, sera; whatever will be, will be’. And, if they have learned the habit of prayer, they peace-fully leave their future in God’s hands.
Today’s Scriptures invite us all to raise our sights, and our hearts, when thinking of the future. Beyond this present life, God has planned a great future for all of us. Isaiah’s prophecy of the heavenly banquet is an invitation to think of our eternal destiny. There is more to live for than what we see in this present world, interesting and challenging though it is. What really counts, indeed, is whether we succeed in reaching our eternal happiness with God.
Perhaps our predecessors in the faith had a stronger sense of the afterlife than we have today. Like Saint Paul, they believed that history is in God’s hands and that divine justice will have the last say. Difficulties in one’s present life could then be seen as growth-pains, or as a means of purifying the spirit from selfishness and sin. Under it all, the world was “in travail,” in process of bringing a new era into existence. So it was that Paul–and many other men and women of faith–could be inwardly at peace, no matter how hard the circumstances in which they found them-selves. We can “do all things in Him who strengthens us,” if we hold on to the hope of everlasting life.
The eternal banquet must not be abandoned as so much “pie in the sky’! Christians don’t literally expect to sit down to an everlasting meal, an eternal eating and drinking festival somewhere in the stratosphere. While heaven is described in vivid anthropomorphic images, we realize that “eye has not seen.. nor can the human heart imagine, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor 2:9.) Still, the banqueting atmosphere of friendly conviviality is a good image for that perfect loving communion with God and with others towards which our lives are destined.
Jesus emphasises that this wedding-banquet is open to all people indeed, that God sends his messengers out to scour the highways and byways in order to fill his house with guests. It is a comforting thought that God wants us to be saved, even more than we do ourselves.
On the other hand, there is a special regalia or wedding-garment that must be worn. This is the level of personal commitment required, in order to accept our place at the wedding feast. I like to think that this refers primarily to community spirit, an ability to share our well-being with other people, in the presence of God. Though founded on faith in God’s creative love, Christian hope retains a strong ethical dimension. Our wedding-garment is therefore being woven daily, by the quality of our interaction with others. In this sense, we hold tomorrow in our own hands, as with the help of God’s grace we build our own eternal future.
What of heaven?
Our notion of heaven derives largely from what we regard as most desirable in this world. Such was always the case. Every age reinvents heaven to mirror its own time. What is depicted tells us more about conditions here than in the hereafter. The idea of its being a marriage feast has little appeal for some of us. Like most priests, I have had more than my share of wedding receptions in this world, with their invariable menus of turkey and ham, to have any desire for more of the same in the next. Yet, there was a time in my life when food came high on the list of desirables. The smell of fried eggs and bacon from the staff dining-room in my boarding-school days could transport me to another world!
Such was the bleakness of the lives of most people in biblical and other times, when food was basic and scarce, it is not surprising that Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to a royal wedding feast. There was of course a political agenda behind those royal banquets. They helped to insure that the heir to the throne would be accepted and loved by his poorer subjects. Caesars and senators in ancient Rome were accustomed to sponsor gladiatorial contests and other bloody spectacles for much the same reason. Cynical Romans were well aware that their acquiescence in, if not allegiance to, the ruling junta, was being bought with ‘bread and circuses’. Vestiges of the same still survive today as richer countries vie with each other to host the Olympic Games or the World Cup.
In the parable Jesus spoke to the religious hierarchy of his time. They were his prime target and they knew it. Already they had plans to rid themselves of this rabble-rousing rabbi, for they were too preoccupied with clinging to privilege and power to accept God’s invitation to the wedding-feast. Others had their ‘farms’ and their ‘businesses’, their deals and the social whirl. Unhappy with being reprimanded for their dubious practices, they rejected the prophetic messengers sent to warn them that the feast was ready. This story goes on finding in every age a new target audience. Maybe Curial executive types who run the local churches like regional subsidiaries of a giant international company should take the warning nowadays. But they are not alone. It would be comforting to think of ourselves as too ordinary to be included, or that we are among those at the crossroads who finally fill the wedding-hall. Our baptism placed us squarely on the guest list. Our profession of faith every Sunday confirms it. But our actual priorities might still keep us from making to the wedding feast.
It used to be thought that heaven was the better of the two options on offer when we die. The Christian truth is that the offer of heaven is made here and now; for death only fixes for eternity the choice we actually make in this life. We have already received our invitations. We have been tagged with an RSVP. -We are already making our responses by the priorities we choose here and now.
Daniel Berrigan noted the sharp ironies in this parable: “The story is charged with ironies. We have the Christ of “love your enemies” telling about a king who takes revenge on his enemies (Matthew 22, 1-14) . This king, in fact, recalls the most savage of Hebrew and Gentile rulers. The invitation to his banquet declares that everyone is welcome, “both evil and good.” But after the ragtag guests assemble, someone is by no means made welcome. Quite the opposite. He is “bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness.” His offence? Lacking that well-known wedding garment. This anonymous guest, someone from “the main highways,” perhaps homeless, almost certainly destitute, where was such a one to come on a festive robe? Imagine a homeless person in New York rounded up to appear at a wedding and then berated for not being clothed in a tuxedo!”
This week if you asked anybody, “What do you most wish for our world, in one word?” the answer would most likely be: “Peace.”
The Bible often offers promises of peace, even of world peace. Pope Benedict, in “Jesus of Nazareth,” suggested that Isaiah’s vision of swords turned into ploughshares (Is 2:4) was deluded, and that Jesus brought us inner peace instead. Jesus tells us “that no kingdom of this world is the Kingdom of God, the definitive state of salvation of humanity. Human kingdom is human kingdom, and anyone who says he can establish a healed or whole (heile) world is assenting to Satan’s deception and surrendering the world to him…. What did Jesus then really bring, since he did not bring world peace, or good conditions for all, or a better world? The answer is quite simple: God. He brought God… Now we know His face, now we can call on Him” (p. 73). After three thousand years of longing for peace, with no sign of it in sight, such an expression of despair is understandable. To see Jews and Muslims oppressing and murdering each other over 75 years is as powerful a demonstration of divine non-existence as the Nazi slaughter; its perpetrators were worshippers of Satan not God; but here it is devout worshippers of God who are at one another’s throats.
Can we listen to the biblical promises in today’s readings and make sense of them?
“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” (Is 25:6-10)
There is a “Waiting for Godot” aspect to such promises: they are not for today, but will be fulfilled “on that day” at the end-times, eschatologically. Yet the power to achieve such promises is with us, and enables a partial achievement of the perfect consummation to come. Seeing some breakthrough triumph of peace and justice, a Christian may legitimately rejoice in it as an incremental advance of the Kingdom of God. I remember Edward Schillebeeckx talking in those terms of some political event in Latin America, and googling it, I find a University of Notre Dame thesis of 2001 by Anthony S. Lee which explains Schillebeeckx’s thinking: “In his later theology, he highlights the church’s critical and prophetic role in the political realm, in light of the new shape of sacramentality that consists in being an anticipatory sign, interrupting the history of suffering and realizing the kingdom of God” (p. 6). It is good to know that there are theologians who think seriously on how to connect the power of church preaching and sacraments with the life and death agonies that are played out in the political realm. They may offer a path away from impotent hand-wringing to something like the confidence of the Prophets.
Communal meals in Judaism and in Christianity (the Eucharist) celebrate the Lord’s Presence among His people, and they anticipate the heavenly banquet at the consummation of all things. Perhaps we need to organize a new kind of liturgy where Jews, Muslims, and Christians can feast together before the Lord.
“The sheet that is spread over the nations” is linked in Joseph Blenkinsopp’s commentary, with a veil of mourning. In a war-torn world it must be the case that “the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning” (Qohelet 7:4), but once again Isaiah promises the impossible. We even have heard one of the rare Old Testament verses that promises an end to death: “he will swallow up death forever.” Blenkinsopp recalls how “Mot (the Canaanite deity whose name means death) swallows Baal at the beginning of the arid season and is himself in due course overcome.” This still echoes in Paul’s jubilant cry: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54).
The peoples mourn, death is at work everywhere, most horribly in war. But a loving God promises to wipe away the tears not only of “his people” but of “all peoples”, and we can feel that loving care for us even now if we work as peace-makers.
Key Message:
Holy Mass gives us a little Heaven on earth.
Homily:
A testimony from a girl from a non-Christian religion in a Christian minority country – “Once I became aware that our Lord is the only true God, I started following Him from my heart. When I revealed it to my family, they opposed it. They were terrified that we would be outcasts from our community. So I kept it a secret. Secretly attended Sunday Mass. My bathroom became my prayer room. Every day I would pray for one hour in my restroom. I would kneel and pray and also read the Holy Bible in my restroom. Miraculously, God gave me a boy from our community who was a secret believer of our Lord Jesus Christ just like me. Our families were happy for us to get us married. Now we are happily married and living as a happy Christian family in the friendship of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
The determination of this girl made the bathrooms also beautiful prayer rooms. She persisted in her difficulties, to continue with her newfound friendship with Jesus. Sometimes people who are born as Christians become lethargic in their walk with God and this makes them weak. Those who are new Christians are happy in their newfound treasure and they are very rigorous in their walk with God – This enables them to become strong and bold.
In the second reading, our Apostle Paul says, “I can do all the things which God has assigned me to do through His grace”. There is nothing less in which God has provided us for completing our tasks. Only if we aim to do something that is not planned for us, will we be insufficient. God’s grace is sufficient for us to go through the worst hardships of our lives. God does not promise a no-problem life, but He promises His grace to take us through the problems. For example, St. Paul was suffering due to a thorn. He prayed thrice for the removal of the thorn. But our Lord Jesus told Him, “My grace is sufficient for you”. St. Paul had undergone shipwrecks, a big snake tied to his hand, was heavily beaten, was hungry, and suffered a lot. He brought a dead man back to life. The devils feared him and ran away. Miraculous cures were happening through him. He testified, “It is no longer I who live, it is Christ living in me”. But still, when He prayed for the removal of the thorn, it was not removed. But sufficient grace was provided to handle it.
As we read our Gospel reading, our Almighty Father is hosting a special banquet and is calling each one of us for this banquet. The banquets are all our prayer gatherings, and retreats, especially the Mass. Wherever. calling all of us individually and personally for a special banquet. He wants the banquet to be filled with His children. Our Almighty Father longs for His children to set some time apart for Him alone. When God created Adam and Eve, God had set His time in the cool of the day specifically to walk with Adam and Eve. Going for a walk with Adam and Eve every day was the joy of God’s life. Just like how we happily enjoy the little funny things our children do, our God enjoys the little funny things we do.
Our Almighty Father also enjoys having a special place (the wedding hall in today’s parable) to experience these special moments. He created the beautiful garden of Eden for chatting with Adam and Eve. Even when the Israelites were going around in the desert with their tents, our Almighty Father asked them to build a tent for Him too. When Jacob was escaping from his brother Esau, he saw the vision of angels ascending and descending to God’s throne. He exclaimed, “How great is this place O Lord, thou art here”. God’s tent was the place of worship for wandering Israelites. Later when they settled, King David wanted to build a glorious temple for our God. But because his hand had fought many battles, God chose David’s son Solomon to build the temple for Him. When this temple was ruined, then God inspired Nehemiah to rebuild His temple. Our Almighty Father is waiting for us to meet in this special place. In our generation, this special place is our church. The banquet is our Mass. The first banquet Mass was hosted by our Lord Jesus during His last supper.
“The Holy Mass Explained to Cataline by Jesus and Mary” is a good read before attending the Holy Mass. It gives the spiritual activities that happen during the Holy Mass. The reality of the presence of our Almighty Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the role of our guardian angels and saints, souls in purgatory and the whole of Heaven actively contributing to our Mass service.
As we read in the Holy Mass explained to Catalina, we are before the Majestic presence of the throne of God before the Mass. When we sing the Gloria “We praise You, we bless You, we adore You, we give You glory, we give You thanks, Lord, God, Heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.” we sing before the paternal face of the Father, full of kindness. When we sing “Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world…” It is our Lord Jesus Christ in front of us, with that face full of tenderness and Mercy… “For You alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the most High Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit…” It is the Triune God in front of us, whom we adore.
When the moment of the “Liturgy of the Word” arrives, let us tell the Lord that we are here to listen, and we want Him to speak to our hearts today.
Transcript from the explanation of the Mass during the “Offering”:
Suddenly some characters, whom I had not seen before, began to stand up. It was as if from the side of each person present in the Cathedral, another person emerged, and soon the Cathedral became full of young, beautiful people. They were dressed in very white robes, and they started to move into the central aisle and, then, went towards the Altar.
Our Mother said: “Observe. They are the Guardian Angels of each one of the persons who are here. This is the moment in which your guardian angel carries your offerings and petitions before the Altar of the Lord.”
At that moment, I was completely astonished, because these beings had such beautiful faces, so radiant as one is unable to imagine. Their countenance was very beautiful with almost feminine faces; however, the structure of their body, their hands, and their height were masculine. Their naked feet did not touch the floor, but rather they went as if gliding. That procession was very beautiful.
Some of them were carrying something like a golden bowl with something that shone a great deal with a golden-white light. The Virgin Mary said: “They are the Guardian Angels of the people who are offering this Holy Mass for many intentions, those who are conscious of what this celebration means. They have something to offer the Lord.”
“Offer yourselves at this moment; offer your sorrows, your pains, your hopes, your sadness, your joys, your petitions. Remember that the Mass has infinite value. Therefore, be generous in offering and in asking.”
Behind the first Angels came others who had nothing in their hands; they were coming empty-handed. The Virgin Mary said: “Those are the angels of the people who are here but never offer anything. They have no interest in living each liturgical moment of the Mass, and they have no gifts to carry before the Altar of the Lord.”
At the end of the procession came other angels who were rather sad, with their hands joined in prayer but with their eyes downcast. “These are the Guardian Angels of the people who are here, but do not want to be, that is to say, of the people who have been forced to come here, who have come out of obligation, but without any desire to participate in the Holy Mass. The angels go forth sadly because they have nothing to carry to the Altar, except for their prayers.”
“Do not sadden your Guardian Angel. Ask for much, ask for the conversion of sinners, for peace in the world, for your families, and your neighbours, for those who ask for your prayers. Ask, ask for much, not only for yourselves but for everyone else.”
During the consecration, our Lord Jesus appears hanging on the cross. At that moment, the Virgin Mary said: “This is the miracle of miracles. I have said to you before that the Lord is not constrained by time and space. At the moment of the Consecration, all the assembly is taken to the foot of Calvary, at the instant of the crucifixion of Jesus.”
During Communion, while our Lord Jesus becomes a “Beggar of Love” in this sublime hour for the soul. But all we say is only a litany of requests. His longing for love is never considered.
Let us come prepared and fully relish every moment of the Mass!!