All are invited!

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 22, 1-14 Today’s Gospel really contains two parables. They are both about the wedding banquet, but it is important to not try to collapse the two stories into one. That is why we have opted to read just the short form of the gospel today, or the first of the two parables. Today’s parable compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast. These are my favorite parables; I like to think of heaven as a big banquet in heaven where there is plenty of good food and drink. Where there is music, dancing and people enjoying themselves. It is a chance to see old friends and to make new ones as well. I don’t like the parables of working, or being a slave because that doesn’t fit into my image of heaven. Yes, I like the idea of a banquet. The king begins the banquet but sending out invitations. We can imagine that the first ones who got an invite were the elite of society, the best of the best, the ones who went to church and did what they were supposed to. The big surprise is that they don’t respond to the invitation. It is hard for us to imagine, who wouldn’t accept an invitation to a wedding banquet, much less to the wedding banquet of the king’s son. You would imagine that the people would think, “if it is the king’s son the food had better be good.” Other’s might have thought, “I had better go, it wouldn’t look good if I rejected the king’s invite.” But no, many people rejected the invitation of the King to the banquet. Just like we know in real life there are many folks who reject the invitation to enter into the Kingdom of God. They opt to remain outside. The king doesn’t lose heart though. The banquet is ready, the hall is decorated, and the food prepared, the beer is on ice and the band is playing. The king’s one desire is to fill the banquet hall, “go out to the main roads and invite everyone to the feast.” It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or what you have done. The good and the bad, the rich and the poor, all are invited to the banquet. Again, this is just a parable, but what we learn from the story is the desire of God to fill the banquet hall. God invites everyone and no one is excluded the key thing is to respond to the invitation. Right now, in Rome we are in the midst of a Synod, and we know what the desire of Pope Francis is: he wants to open the church up to all. Like the king at the banquet, like God in heaven his desire is that all be included. His hope is that no one will feel left out of excluded from the banquet. Our presence here this Sunday is our response to the invitation. This is the preparation for the heavenly banquet to which we are invited. Isn’t it wonderful that we have been invited to the banquet, isn’t it wonderful that we have responded to the invitation. But we can’t stop there. It isn’t enough for us to just accept the invitation and come into the banquet. No, we like the servants in the Gospel must go out to the main roads and invite others into the banquet. That is the desire of God, that is the lesson of the parable, to invite all into the banquet. The Catholic Church is called to be a church that is inclusive of everybody. No one can be left out, no one excluded no one made to feel less or that they are not worthy.