28th Sunday
in Ordinary Time A – October 11, 2020
One of the most challenging chores for a couple
getting married is the invitation list. Who do you invite and
who do you not
invite? Having decided on the invitation list and having sent out the
invitations, firming
up the numbers coming can be a challenge as well. Not
every one that is invited replies to the invitation,
and not everyone who replies in the positive will turns up.
The story Jesus speaks in next Sunday’s gospel reading is about a wedding, and not just any
ordinary
wedding, but a royal wedding. It is a king’s son who is getting
married. An invitation to a royal wedding
is a serious matter. In the culture
of the time of Jesus, two invitations would normally have been sent out to
such
a wedding banquet. One when the wedding was still a long way off and the other
on the day of the
wedding banquet just as the meal was about to be served. In
the story it was at the point of the second
invitation, when the meal was
ready, that those who said ‘yes’ to the first invitation began to make excuses.
They had
a farm to go to, business to attend to.
To say you were not coming to the royal
banquet at that late stage when all was ready was, indeed,
a great insult to the host. Those who said ‘no’ offered lame excuses and
killed the messengers.
The king had every right to be furious.
Yet, so
determined was he to ensure a joyful occasion for his son, the king did not
focus on his
disappointment and anger but sent out more servants to bring in
total strangers from the crossroads,
what the parable refers to as ‘bad and good alike’. I am sure these people
couldn’t believe their luck.
The story depicts a king who refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer, who keeps
searching until he finds
people who will say ‘yes’. Jesus is saying something to us about God’s persistence. God is determined that
his Son, who
John the Baptist once referred to as a bridegroom, should have a wedding
banquet where
there are no empty seats. God is constantly drawing people to his
Son; we are constantly being drawn by
God to his Son. Even when we seem to show
little interest because we have a farm to go to or business to
attend to or
whatever, God will keep searching until he finds people who are interested or
until we have a
change of mind or heart. God wants all people to share the
table of his Son, to be special guests of his Son,
to be in close communion
with him.
There is nothing selective about God’s guest list; good and bad alike are invited to become
friends of the
bridegroom. The first reading describes a great banquet which
embraces all people and all nations.
As we gather around Jesus in response to
God’s invitation, we will find ourselves surrounded by all
sorts of
people. The church is a funny mix; it is not a gathering of the pure
and perfect. It is a gathering of what the
parable calls ‘bad and good alike’, and we should be slow to
decide who are among the good and who are
among the bad because there is good
and bad in all of us. Remember the parable a few Sundays ago. Jesus
spoke the
parable of the wheat and the weeds. They were both growing together in the one
field and the farmer
did not allow his servants to start separating them before harvest time for fear they should mistake the wheat
for the weed. We are all
good and we are all sinners in need of repentance. We all stand under the mercy
of God.
That is where the last part of the parable comes in,
concerning the wedding guest who was not wearing a wedding
garment. One of the
little rituals that follows immediately after the baptism of a child is the
clothing of the child
with the baptismal robe. The mother or the godmother is
invited to clothe the baptized child with a white garment
as the celebrant
says, “You have been clothed with Christ.
See in this white garment the outward sign of your
Christian dignity. With
family and friends to help you, bring that dignity unstained into the
everlasting life of heaven.
” Even though, through
baptism, we have been invited to the wedding feast of God’s Son, even though we remain on
God’s guest list as we go through life, that realization
should never leave us complacent. We have to keep dressing
appropriately
(justice, peace, forgiveness, compassion) – putting on Christ We are called to
keep growing into the
person of Christ. While all are called to the banquet,
they are expected to behave as wedding guests. In practical
terms, while the
Church opens wide its arms to the sinner, it expects that the sinner makes some
effort to repent and
be converted. We put on Christ when our old ways are
nailed to the cross and we wear the clothing of grace and
forgiveness of Jesus
as a glorious garment for all the world to see.
Fr.
Don Webber,