INTRODUCTION
The banquet theme joins the First Reading with the Gospel. The banquet as used in these readings symbolizes the joy and happiness that are associated with the Kingdom of God; a Kingdom which is echoed by Isaiah in the image of the mountain. The prophet delivers the promise of God to the awaiting returnees of the babylonian exile, assuring them that God is about to change their history. The Gospel is an actualization of the message of Isaiah. It paints the image of God who organizes feast for His people and sends our message for them to grace the occasion. The Second Reading links the theme. It narrates the interior life of the members of the community of Philippi recounting how their life of love and generosity has been a contribution to the spreading of the Good News of the Kingdom. This is evident in Paul’s testimony today. That’s to say, the qualification for the eternal banquet organized by God requires living the life of the Gospel.
FIRST READING: Isaiah 25:6-10
The prophet Isaiah (742-700 B.C.) describes, under the image of a great banquet, the blessings and happiness that the Messianic Kingdom will bring.
The audience of the prophet were the Israelites in Babylonian exile. When the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, they destroyed the city and killed most of its inhabitants. They took those whom they permitted to live to Babylonia to serve as slaves. The destruction of the Holy City and the suffering in captivity were events that produced mourning. But the good news is that captivity has never had the final word in the life of the chosen people. It is for this that the prophet anticipates the redemption of the people and the restoration of the Holy City.
This chapter describes what the redemption will look like. The Lord of hosts will make a great feast on Mount Zion (Jerusalem). It is a salvation message that incorporates the whole nations, not just for Israel, but for all peoples (v. 6). This means that the suffering of the people of Israel englobes and prefigures the suffering of the whole human race. Thus the message of gathering of the peoples together on mount Zion is of bipolar significance. It speaks of the historical exodus of the Israelites from Babylonian to Jerusalem, and at the same time anticipates the eschatological departure of the people of the earth to the New Jerusalem (heaven). This return will be greeted with Yahweh’s destruction of death (v. 7) and the wiping away of tears from every eye (v. 8a), and the restoration of the dignity of His people (v. 8b). On that mountain, the shroud that covers the people will be removed so that they will see their God again. In other words, nothing will separate them again from perceiving the presence of God. They will be stripped of burial shrouds—the kind of shrouds now required for “all peoples”—because all are still subject to death. But since death does not have the final word, the Lord of hosts will bring it to an end. The prophet Isaiah takes the mind of his readers back to the first moments of the fall of man (Gen. 3) when death became the consequence of sin and the enemy of man and the most dreaded of all things, while offering them at the same time the message of hope that their God has the power to destroy this enemy forever.
In fact, the next chapter which is the chapter 26, the prophet gives a further glimpse into the triumph over death. He says:
“Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust;for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead” (26:19)
This message of Isaiah will be re-emphasized in the Apocalypse of St. John when it says that God “will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
We are called to relive the message of the prophet today by seeing in it a direct assurance of the finite nature of every human suffering. We shed tears for a whole lot of reasons—illness, financial problems, natural disasters, frustrations, marriages gone wrong, children gone wrong—the list is almost endless. But with Isaiah today, we learn that we have a God who wipes away the tears of his people. And as long as He lives, his people will not remain forever in tears. He will not only wipe away their tears, He will equally destroy whatever causes them to shed tears and feed them with the abundance of his presence on the mountain of joy (v. 6).
SECOND READING: Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
One of the communities that were of generous financial support for the ministry of Paul was the community of Philippi. So the Apostle felt the need to appreciate their generosity even from the prison confinement. Paul expresses his gratitude in a form of prayer: “My God in turn will supply your needs fully, in a way worthy of His magnificent riches in Christ Jesus.” Paul acknowledges the fact that he learnt to be a man of faith both in good times and in bad times, “of living in abundance and of being in need.” And by the virtue of his great faith in the Lord, Paul was able to see the hand of God present in his life both “in humble circumstances or in abundance” because he learnt to make himself available so that Christ could transform his whole existence in His death and Resurrection: “I have learned,” he writes, “the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry.” Therefore, even when he was gradually drained of strength as a result of his suffering (a man of many chains around his body, living in the darkness of the prison), he was still full of faith in the Lord whom he considered to be
the only source of his strength: “In Him who is the source of my strength, I have strength for everything.”
In this life, we are often knocked off track on our journey of faith especially when suffering sets in. But today we are schooled in the experience of Paul that calls us to have a positive disposition to life. It is a school of thought that sees suffering not as our world sees it today, but suffering as a means of responding to our vocation as Christians. Paul makes us to ask ourselves this fundamental question: If we do not suffer and remain faithful even while we suffer, how can we claim to be faithful Christians? Yes, there is no other means to determine how faithful we are apart from the challenges of life that push us to question our faith. Paul makes us to understand our need of a complete and unquestioning trust in God and to always embrace a firm conviction that God is always aware of our situations. He takes note of everything we are passing through in life and is bent at regulating the affairs of our lives for a blessed end.
GOSPEL: Matthew 22:1-14
Our Gospel reading today belongs to the group of parables called “The Kingdom Parable”. Its message is intended to help us to understand the differences between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of heaven. The wedding banquet is a metaphor for the messianic banquet that we will enjoy with Christ in the kingdom of heaven (see Isaiah 25:6-8).
The king (the figure of God) takes the initiative to organize the marriage feast and to invite the guests. This points to the fact that salvation itself is God’s initiative.
In the custom of the time, we learn that preparing for a banquet is expensive and requires time, so the practice is to send and accept invitations well in advance. In this way, the host will prepare food according to the number of people who accepted to come. The extension of an invitation, then, obligates the host to prepare, and the acceptance obligates the guest to appear.
Once the banquet is ready, the host sends a second notice—rather like our custom of making medical appointments in advance and receiving a reminder call a day ahead. From the tone of the second invitation it is obvious that the first invitation was issued very much earlier: “Tell those who have been invited: Look, my banquet is all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding” (V. 4).
But the rest of the narrative turned out to be dramatic.
FIRST GROUP
The first group of invitees showed lack of interest. Their sense of indifference was considered to be serious since the invitation was about something very important. It was the wedding feast of the heir apparent to the throne; the feast meant for men of honour. The invitation was repeated more than once just to show how important their presence was for the king. Therefore, such lack of interest was seriously offensive.
When this parable is applied in the Church, we see that there are indifferent Christians who prefer to pursue earthly wealth to faith, business to prayer, the earth to heaven, time to eternity and who prefer themselves to the Lord. Naturally, they are not hostile nor impious. They are not fundamentally irreligious, but the problem is that they do not have time for the Lord since their whole being is consumed by earthly interest. Thus, according to the parables, the end for this set of people is that at a time, God will definitely shift his attention away from them, and the judgment will be, “I do not know you”. This group of persons are quite much today as a result of passionate pursuit of politics, economic life and hunger for the world.
SECOND GROUP
The second group in the parable are those who declared themselves openly as the enemies of the king. They only waited for the marriage feast to serve as an occasion to demonstrate their rebellion against the king. Their rebellion was revolutionary and bloody.
In relation to the Church, these people are those we can consider as militant atheists, those who consider themselves as open enemies of the Church, the antichrist. According to their conviction, they see the Church (religion) as an opium of the people; faith as parasitic to humanity; christian ethics as a weakening of national strength and the Church as an institution that exploit ‘the spiritually weak and minor’.
This group of persons are always determined to fight the Church with all available means. They often do it through their writings, their words and assembling of partisan persons. And when they find themselves in the position of political power, they use repressive laws, the police bullying and even physical arms. Thus, their project is to see that the Church goes into extinction. But history makes us to know that all the persons that proved hostile to the Church have all ended into nothing. Yes, those whose project is to fight God will always meet a destructive end. Anyone who believes himself to be a superman and unleashes his hatred and hostility against the Church will surely submit to an infamous end. Where are the world most famous dictators and persecutors of the Church today? How often do the public remember of celebrate them as heroes as they claimed while they were alive?
THIRD GROUP
The man without a wedding garment in the parable represents the third group of persons. They are those who apparently join the group of participants but have no interest and spirit of participation. The man could have willing put on the right wears for the ceremony but he felt that it wasn’t necessary. His participation in the feast was a silent revolution. It was a conscientious and deliberate decision to let the king know that though he is present but he is not interested in his ‘trash’. In other words, he came to mock the occasion.
In the Church, these type of persons are many. They are those who appear to be effective members. They take part in the activities of the Church. They carry themselves about as practicing catholics but in reality, they do not have the presence of Christ in them. They belong to the Church only by appearance because their interior beings do not possess true Christian spirit. They are dead members of the mystical body of Christ. They are Catholics that often keep the feast days holy but profane the working days. They are Sunday catholics and weekday pagans. Their homes are often full of religious articles but their hearts are empty of Christ. The end for these people as the parable says is that of expulsion because their very presence is a disturbance to the feast. Their presence in the Church is simply a mockery to the faith and to Christ because they hide under the Church to live their unholy life. This is the symbol of lack of wedding garment.
FOURTH GROUP
This represent those who welcome the invitation to the feast and enjoy all that it offers with all their heart. They knew that they ‘came from afar’ and did not have the right to participate in the feast, but their joy knew no bound when they saw themselves as part of the guests. They were simply men of grace.
They represent those in the Church who see their membership as a grace. They see themselves as unworthy to be called to the faith, and so they welcomed God’s call with all their heart. Most of these people were once afar off, formally outside the faith and sinners. But on receiving the faith, the tried to make themselves worthy of it. Hence, their life becomes a feast, and their end will be a participation in the wedding feast of the Lamb. They are and they will remain friends of the bridegroom. They belong to the New Jerusalem and to the Church who is the bride of the Lamb, and together with her, they will welcome the bridegroom.
LIFE MESSAGE
1. THE EUCHARISTIC: THE COSTLIEST BANQUET
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1402-1405, 2837) teaches that the Eucharist is the foretaste of the Messianic Banquet. God Incarnate waits for us in His House of Worship, offering Himself for us on our altars and inviting us for the sumptuous Banquet of His own Body and Blood for the nourishment of our souls in the Holy Eucharist.
Yes, the Eucharist is the costliest meal ever organized by God because it is a total and unreserved gift of the Father to us. In it Christ is present in body, soul and divinity. What takes place in the Eucharist is a divine exchange whereby our humanity is divinized. That is why the priest while letting a drop of water into the chalice before the prayers of consecration says in silence: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
Thus the Eucharist is not just a meal of the hear and now, it is an eternal gift. Its eternity is not simply because Christ who is eternal comes to dwell in our heart but it equally fulfills the now mystery and anticipates the heavenly liturgy when Christ the Eternal High Priest will preside over the celebration of His wedding feast with His bride , the Church : ‘From now on, I tell you, I shall never again drink wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father.’ (Matt. 26:29; Mk. 14:25; Lk. 22:18).
It is a pity that many catholics now have issues with the Eucharistic Jesus. They no longer find interest in Him. They no longer hunger and taste for Him. He is no longer attractive to them, and now absent from their spiritual menu. The downfall of every well meaning catholic starts the day he or she loses interest in Christ, present in the Eucharist. It is not possible to talk about the Church without the Eucharist. From Henri de Lubac we have the saying, “Eucharistia facit ecclesiam“: “The Eucharist makes the Church, and [in turn] the Church makes the Eucharist.”
And the Fathers of the II Vatican Council affirmed repeatedly the inseperability of the Church and the Eucharist in the document Lumen Gentium (LG 3, 11, 26).
We are called to rekindle our love and desire for Jesus in the Eucharist. He is that precious “party” that the Father organizes and sends out invitation to us. Are you among those who give excuses about their personal weaknesses and supposed irreconcilable lifestyle? Are you among those who speak ills about the meal as a way of defence for personal problems with the Church? And for those of us who approach the meal. Do we truly receive Christ in our hearts, allowing Him to be manifested in our daily dealings with others or do we suffocate His presence with our sins?
2. WHERE IS YOUR GARMENT?
On the very day we were baptized, Christ gave us new garment of purity that is compatible with His holiness. It is a garment that is meant to replace our old garment of sin and corruption. And this new garment confers on us a responsibility.
It simply means living out the Gospel message. We are called to live the moral and ethical values embodied in Jesus’ life. In other words, the “wedding garment” in the parable refers to true discipleship rather than uncommitted membership. The parable means that when one freely accepts Christ as one’s Lord and Savior something must necessarily change from the way he or she used to be. It cannot be business as usual. We cannot gamble with Christ for the call to holiness is a daily and constant effort.
It is unfortunate that many Christians have settled with the mindset that it is impossible to obtain holiness down here on earth. Certainly, the path to holiness is very difficult but not impossible. The secret lies in making oneself available for Christ.
Please the race is still on. Let us join while we still have the strength, because time shall come when it will be over. Let us reach out to pick up our wedding garment, clean it of dust and put it on again. Let us not allow the devil to seize the garment from us. It is God’s precious gift to us on the day we were christened. It is the passport to the eternal banquet in heaven. Where is your wedding garment?
PRAYER
May your grace O Lord at all times go before us and follow after, and make us always determined to carry out good works. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
