28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Sunday 15th October 2017)
An invitation to the Heavenly banquet- (Matthew 22:1-14)
That must have been some wedding feast to have led to violence like that! The people maltreat and kill the messengers with the invitations, and the king destroys the murderers and burns their town. Thank God it’s just a parable, but obviously a parable of something more important than any party we’ve come across. No party I’ve ever been invited to is a life and death issue, but this is a parable about a life and death issue: it’s the invitation we have received to eat the Bread of Life in the Mass, as Jesus says, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).
Sometimes we think that indifference to faith is a modern thing, but Jesus has already predicted it when he speaks of those who turned down the invitation: “They weren’t interested,” he says quite simply about them. It’s very modern. But this invitation to us to eat the flesh of Christ is a matter of life and death and we should never forget to worship this mystery, because the gates of eternal life have been open in front of us, just by our saying ‘Yes’ to the Bread of Life every Sunday. Let’s clothe ourselves with respect and thanksgiving and go to be fed by the Lord.