One religious surveyor noted that among Catholics, “Mass attendance has fallen off the cliffs” (Ryan Burge, Graphs about Religion). What is puzzling is that no one seems to be talking about it. I haven’t heard our bishop mention it as a problem, nor our pastor, nor the weekly Catholic newspaper. Is this the elephant in the living room? If a business declined by twenty or thirty percent, do you think the owners would pretend that it isn’t happening?
Though leaders of the Church seem to ignore the issue, do you think God feels the same way?
Let’s listen to today’s gospel story (Luke 14:15-24).
“A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’ But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you to consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.’”
I wonder how the master of the house felt about being snubbed by these people. Their possessions, their work, their wives were more important to them than attending the man’s dinner. Do you think the man shrugged this off and said “Oh, well, I understand that people are just busy these days”? Let’s listen.
“The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant. ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’”
The master was not just mildly upset or even angry. His anger topped off into a rage. He was furious that these friends had turned down his invitation. Not willing to waste all the food that was prepared, he sent out his servants into the streets and alleys to gather the homeless people and the other social rejects and bus them to the party.
This is as though a mayor decided to spend a hundred thousand dollars on a dinner to help bring unity back to the city. And then the city officials, dignitaries of the community, and wealthy people ignored him. Do you think he would be angry, even in a rage?
The master in the parable, of course, is God himself. He threw the greatest banquet ever known and invited a people whom he had favored for a thousand years, the Israelites. When his Son came into the world to announce what God was about to do, people, especially the religious leaders, started making excuses, just like the people in the parable.
God put out more than a hundred thousand dollars to foot the bill for his banquet. He poured out the blood of his own Son to pay for it. Wouldn’t he be enraged that so many wrote him off?
Back to Mass attendance. Jesus died to make himself available to the world in the Eucharistic banquet. It doesn’t cost a penny to get in. And yet, many have a “take it or leave it” attitude about this great gift. Certainly, God must be “in a rage.”
