Sunday Gospel Comment

 

Alberic Jacovone OSB

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YEAR A

Is 25,6-10; Phil 4,12-14.19-20; Mt 22,1-14

The Banquet of life 

The Banquet of the Kingdom. In the Mass for the dead, we pray: "Lord God, Your Son Jesus Christ gave us the sacrament of his body and blood, to guide us on our pilgrim way to your kingdom. May our Dear One, who shared in the Eucharist, come to share in the Banquet of Life Christ has prepared for us". These words sum up beautifully the meaning of today’s parable of the Banquet. In it, Matthew does more than warn his listeners, both at the time of Jesus and of all time, not to resist the goodness of God. Instead, we must all respond joyfully to the invitation to enter his Kingdom (the Church), where the great King -God himself- has prepared a luscious banquet for the wedding of his son. The point of the parable is this: the people who had been invited had already formally accepted the invitation. But now that all guests were adequately catered for and that the fatted calves had been slaughtered... now that all was ready, they no longer cared; indeed they showed more interest in their trivial affairs. Worse still, they mistreated and killed the servants (saints and prophets) who were sent to insist that they come. They are condemned for refusing the invitation which they had formally accepted, and for being rebellious and murderers. The invitation is then given to sinners and prostitutes, to people from pagan nations, who will rally to the banquet... Here, the themes of the parable are marvellously brought together:: joyous banquet, judgment, pilgrimage of the nations and presence of the messiah as God’s Son and Risen Lord. The warning to those who refuse the invitation goes way beyond the time of Jesus, when the large majority of the Jewish people rejected the claim that Jesus was God’s Messiah. It is valid also in Church of all time and today.

The Banquet of the Risen Lord. Today’s parable contains a warning to all members of the Church, which had already been expressed in Mt 8,11-12: ‘Many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness’. We are all -Jews or Gentiles alike-, equally invited, left free to accept (or reject) at any time. We are all wonderfully welcome. This point is made also in an ancient Eucharistic Prayer in a book called ‘Didache’: "Just as this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains, but was brought together and became one, so let the Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom". The Wedding Banquet of God’s Son is realized in the communal meal of the Church, as communion with the Risen Lord (Eucharist) and as communion with one another (Agape). In it, the messianic banquet, is celebrated prophetically in the Real Presence of the Risen Lord. In it also, we receive a warning: we stand condemned, if we pretend to be at the banquet with the Lord, while excluding our fellow Christians, who are equally invited to the Lord’s banquet. We cannot receive the Lord and be received by Him, while we refuse to acknowledge that we are in communion with each other. In this way we fail to participate in the joy of the banquet, but worse still, we end up eating and drinking our own condemnation, as St Paul sternly puts it in 1Cor 11,29. This banquet is an anticipation if the banquet of life which the Risen Lord has prepared for us in heaven. The incident of the Wedding Garment in the parable, has further connotations to suggest that we should be properly dressed and be worthy to receive and be received. To this insight is linked the custom of dressing 1st Communion children in white garments, as special guests at the Wedding Banquet.

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