WE ARE IN THE MONTH OF OCTOBER; MONTH OF THE HOLY ROSARY. PLEASE, PRAY THE HOLY ROSARY AND ASK FOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY TO PRESENT YOUR INTENTIONS TO HER SON FOR REDRESS.
COLLECT: “MAY YOUR GRACE, O LORD, WE PRAY, AT ALL TIMES GO BEFORE US AND FOLLOW AFTER AND MAKE US ALWAYS DETERMINED TO CARRY OUT GOOD DEEDS. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Is 25:6-10a; Ps 22:1-6; Phil 4:12-14,19-20; Mt 22:1-14 or 22:1-10
“WEAR THE WEDDING GARMENT OF A WORTHY LIFE TO BE COUNTED AMONG GOD’S GUESTS”.
Is every baptized person a genuine and dedicated Christian? Will every baptized person go to heaven? These and similar questions are the core of today’s reflection. Please, take note. Baptism does not mean one is wearing the right garment for heaven.
Heaven, where we are journeying from this planet earth to, is often painted as a place or situation of bliss, all joy and happiness, where merry making goes on. Our scriptures this Sunday, especially the first and the Gospel readings present same picture to us.
The text from the Prophet Isaiah is foretelling us how God will celebrate his messianic feast on his holy mountain, a feast where everything will be abundantly provided. This will happen on the day that God will overthrow evil: “…he will destroy the veil…he will destroy death forever” (25:7-8).
In the gospel, Jesus throws more lights into the messianic feast or banquet that God is preparing for his sons and daughters to partake on the day that he will overthrow and destroy evil and death in us. The parable is more elaborate.
While the first reading offers us assuring hope that one day, we will be in God’s courts to partake in his wedding feast, the gospel teaches us that there is at least, a minimum requirement for one to be part of God’s messianic banquet. God does not discriminate. He invites all of us to the banquet no matter your tribe, colour, language, race, etc. However, there is a minimum requirement for entry.
Accordingly, among the Israelites, it was customary for wedding guests to be given wedding clothes to wear to the banquet. It was unthinkable to refuse to wear these clothes. That would be an insult to the host, who could only assume that the guest was arrogant and thought he did not need these clothes, or he did not want to take part in the wedding celebration.
By employing this parable in his teaching, Jesus wants us to know that God always invites us to his wedding banquet and he always provides the wedding clothes of righteousness to everyone. What is left to each person is to either choose to put them on in order to enter the Kingdom of God (eternal life) or to choose not to put them on and be thrown out of the King’s banquet (eternal life). God always gives an open invitation, but we must be ready and we must always dress well in order to be part of the invited guests.
Fundamentally, the parable described how the Old Testament people of God behaved. God called and invited his people to come and partake in the feast but they rejected his invitation and even mishandled the servants that God sent out to invite them. The requirement for them was to honour God’s invitation and in humility live by faith and love, but they did not. Therefore, an abrupt open invitation was extended to people who were not initially invited. Honouring this invitation, a man, we are told, came into the banquet hall without wearing the wedding clothes. Of course, at the instruction of the King, the man was bound “hands and feet and cast into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (22:13).
God always throws his invitation/call to all of us. In order to be part of God’s invitees, minimum requirements as the wedding garments are needed from each one of us. Some basic minimum requirements are: faith in God, being faithful to him, love and trust in him, love of neighbor and also live Jesus’ message, be a doer of God’s Word, not just only a listener of the Word, keep and obey the Commandments of God, etc.
Our individual vocations (calls) and professions are God’s invitations to us and through them we can finally, and depending on the way we discharge our duties, either be in the right clothes to be part of those God has invited or not because we are not wearing the wedding clothes as we have not been able to discharge our duties and responsibilities well. For instance, if as a Priest, or a religious or a married person I do not fulfill my vows and promises, then I should know that I am not in the right wedding clothes for God’s heavenly banquet (eternal life). Likewise, if I am a worker and I know very well that I am supposed to deliver and produce results and out of laziness, negligence, wickedness, arrogance, etc, I am not able to do that, then I should know I am vying for the situation when they will bind me hands and feet and cast me into the darkness outside where I will weep and grind my teeth.
Today, scriptures remind us once more to examine ourselves critically on our vocations and professions and see whether we are actually up and doing. Sometimes worldly fears, worries, desires and ambitions prevent us from wearing the right clothes for God’s feast. We pray that like St. Paul, we may always learn and know to live our lives from God’s point of view. We also pray that we may always have our priorities right/straight, focus on what we are supposed to do and do it with all diligence, commitment and dedication and at the end be granted eternal life. Remember that whatever I do that is contrary to my Christian calling and Christian life means I am not wearing the right garment or dress for the banquet in heaven. Stay blessed.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, SUNDAY, ON THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES: ‘THE RESURRECTION, THE ASCENSION, THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ASSUMPTION, AND THE CORRONATION’. (WE PRAY FAITH, HOPE, LOVE OF GOD, GRACE OF A HAPPY DEATH AND TRUST IN MARY’S INTERCESSION) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “WE ENTREAT YOUR MAJESTY MOST HUMBLY, O LORD, THAT, AS YOU FEED US WITH THE NOURISHMENT WHICH COMES FROM THE MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF YOUR SON, SO YOU MAY MAKE US SHARERS OF HIS DIVINE NATURE. WHO LIVES AND REIGNS FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@yahoo.com.
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