Guests at the Lord's Banquet

Guests at the Lord's banquet... have we the proper wedding-garment?



Oct. 9 - XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time


As we move toward the end of the Church year - just about six weeks away - we find also a quickening of the pace in the Divine Master's life. On a series of Sundays his clashes with the Pharisees are increasingly bitter. Clearly, something has to give: he wins the arguments but loses his life.


The main theme this Sunday, however, revolves around food and drink and what they imply. The First Reading from Isaiah emphasizes the goodness and liberality of God expressed in terms of bodily nourishment but also in spiritual terms - "The Lord God will wipe away tears from every face." This goes beyond the Jewish situation and concerns you and me who gather each Sunday for the celebration of the Eucharist. The theme of the wedding-garment - specifically-expressed in the Gospel - is relevant here also and could mean not only that we be free of serious sin when we receive Communion but also that our whole attitude to others should be a Christ-like attitude of goodness and openness.


The Responsorial Psalm is well-known and fits many situations - indeed, in a sense every situation because the Lord is always our Good Shepherd. Nothing new there.


As for the Second Reading it fits in with the First Reading and the Gospel... more or less. As we remember, the First Reading and the Gospel are usually chosen for their common theme. The Second Reading, if from St. Paul, may match the theme and again it may not. This Sunday he mentions food but only in the sense that he is not dependent on it. His real dependence is on God Who supplies all his needs. Sound thinking but not exactly the message in the overall liturgy.


The Gospel is the well-known one about the way people treat God's invitation. It is an outline of Jewish history. The "servants" are the great historical figures God sent to guide His people all though the Old Testament — but also to condemn their behavior and so suffer the consequences. In this parable God then "destroys those murderers" and, so to speak, cuts them out of His will, sending his servants to bring in all those they find even the less - attractive ones.


The final section where the king condemns the individual not wearing a wedding- garment does not make perfect sense because none of those found by the servants - good and bad alike" were clothed in this way. Perhaps it means that the "good and bad" ( we in today's Church) should realize that we were not the first "Chosen People" (who failed to understand the Messiah) and must live in accordance with that call - our just being Catholics is not enough. We have to live a genuinely- Catholic life.


~ October 2011 Concord