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"You are invited to a wedding banquet" A Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost By Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros |
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"You are invited to a wedding banquet" A Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost By Archbishop Cyril Salim Bustros |
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You
are invited to a wedding banquet (14th
Sunday after the Pentecost - Mt. 22:1-14) When Jesus started
preaching, he said just three short sentences, which are the central point of
his mission. He said: "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of
heaven is at hand! Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mc. 1:15). To speak about
heaven is very difficult, because it is speaking about things we cannot
experience in our daily life. So Jesus, in teaching His listeners about heaven,
told them a story, a parable, about a marriage feast. What is the
meaning of this story? What did Jesus want to teach by it? 1. The king who
made a marriage banquet for his son represents God the Creator of heaven and
earth, God the Father. 2. The King's son
is Jesus Christ; he is the eternal Word and Son of God, who became man for our
salvation. This mystery of the Word and Son of God becoming man we call
"The mystery of the Incarnation". And this mystery is itself the
marriage banquet to which God sent his messengers to invite people. The
relationship between God and his people was compared in the Old Testament for
the relationship of bride and groom in a marriage. In the New Testament, this
comparison is used to the relationship between Jesus Christ and his Church, as
we read in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians: Husbands,
love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, to
make her holy, cleansing her with water and
words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no
speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless
(5:25-26). 3. The king's
servants are the Prophets in the Old Testament, the Apostles in the New
Testament, and now they are the ordained ministers in the Church. 4. The invited
Guests who refused to come are all the ungrateful people of the Old Testament
who refused to listen to the Prophets, and the indifferent people of the New
Testament and of the Church who are so busy with their business that they do not
care about God's invitation. This invitation is
not for something boring but for a banquet, for a festivity, for a celebration.
What is the meaning of this banquet? It means a new relation between human
beings and God through his Son, Jesus Christ. So the people who refused the
invitation were not interested in this invitation, because it does not concern
their business. But God is not the God of business, of possessions, of what we
have, but He is the God of what we are, of our being. We must make a clear
distinction between what we have and what we are: we can be very poor in having,
in material possessions, and at the same time very rich in being: in love, in
generosity, in sharing and in caring. And Jesus did not come to enrich our
possessions but to enrich our being. And that is the meaning of his teaching:
Do not be anxious, saying what shall we eat?, or what shall we
drink? or what shall we wear? For the unbelievers seek all these
things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first his Kingdom and his way of holiness, and all these things
will be given you besides (Mt. 6:31-33). That
is the spiritual meaning of the man who was not dressed correctly for the
wedding feast. What kind of garment do we need to enter the 1-
First of all by our baptism we put on as garment Jesus Christ
himself, as we sing with 2-
Then this garment also includes our sorrow for the sins of life, and our
reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. How difficult it is to sincerely
repent for our wrongs. But they are there bare wounds on our souls, and bare
wounds in the Body of Christ. We can heal them, by pouring on them the holy
blood of Christ. And that is the meaning of the third sentence of the first
preaching of Jesus: Repent and believe in the Gospel. 3-
Finally the wedding garment also contains the jewels of good deeds. Our
Christian acts of kindness and mercy shine like diamonds. It is through our
virtues that others see the light of Christ. Not everyone who prays Lord,
Lord, shall enter the So
it is that day by day, week by week, and year by year, as we go through life, we
are weaving the garment that we shall wear on Judgment Day. And we must work
while it is day, Jesus said, for the night comes when nobody can work.
That night is the night of death. The
Gospel story ends with the words of our Savior: For many are called, but
few are chosen. The call of Christ for faith, for repentance, for
Christian living and loving, goes on and on. We are all among the called, and
remember: we are invited to a marriage banquet, the banquet of the marriage of
the Son of God with his Church that means with us. God grant that we might also
be among the chosen. Every
Sunday we are invited to a banquet, the banquet of the Eucharistic meal, in
which we are united in a sacramental way to the risen Christ, for our personal
sanctification and the building of the Church. This sacrament strengthens the
unity of the Church, according to the words of Let our mouth be filled with your praise, O Lord, for you have counted us worthy to share your holy immortal and spotless mysteries. Keep us in sanctification that we may sing your glory / meditating on your holiness all the day. Alleluia.
Alleluia. Alleluia! |