My Dear People,

Both Readings today deal with a feast and a banquet. The Prophet Isaiah, as mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, deals with a banquet on top of a mountain—a high point on earth, therefore closer to God. The Lord prepared a special feast for all the nations on Mount Zion with succulent food and fine wine—a symbolic reference to the divine fare God provides, which surpasses anything that man could imagine. This prefigures the Eucharistic Banquet, instituted by Jesus in Jerusalem, providing divine nourishment, His own Body and Blood, to strengthen the soul. And it is a pledge of future glory—to share in the Lord’s Supper anticipating the eschatological feast of the "marriage of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:9).

Celebrating this memorial of Christ, risen, and ascended into heaven, the Christian community waits “in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ”(John Paul II Dies Domini, 38). The saints often encourage us to bear this in mind when we receive the Eucharist: “It is an eternal pledge to us. It assures us a place in heaven, and it is a guarantee that one day heaven will be our home. Moreover, Jesus Christ will raise up our bodies in glory, in accordance with how often and with what dignity we have received His Body in Holy Communion” (St. John Baptist Mary Vianney, Sermons on Holy Communion).

St. Paul rejoices and reminds us: “God will destroy death forever” when the resurrection of Christ marks the definitive victory over death (1 Cor 15:54-55). It appears also in the Book of Revelation where it proclaims the salvation has been wrought by the Lamb who has died and risen again:

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death

shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying

nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

The Church, too, speaks in a similar vein in its prayer for the dead, beseeching God to receive them into his Kingdom: “There we hope to share in your glory when every tear will be wiped away. (Roman Missal Eucharistic Prayer III).

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of a banquet which is the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus reveals how intensely God the Father desires salvation of all men; and, the mysterious malice that lies in willingly rejecting the invitation to attend—a malice so vicious that it merits eternal punishment. 

(cont’d from pg 2) No human argument can ever make any sense if it goes against God’s call to conversion, acceptance of faith, and its consequences.

The Fathers see the first invitees as the Jewish people. In salvation history, God addresses Himself first to the Israelites and then to all the Gentiles (Acts 13:46). Intelligence and hostility cause the Israelites to reject God’s loving call. They, therefore, suffer condemnation. But the Gentiles need also to respond faithfully to the call they have received, otherwise they will suffer the fate of being "cast into outer darkness”.

“The marriage” says St. Gregory the Great (In Evangelia Homiliae, 36) is the wedding of Christ and His Church. The garment is the virtue of charity. The wedding garment signifies the disposition a person needs to possess in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The person who goes into the feast without a wedding garment is someone who believes in the Church but does not have charity. Even though one may belong to the Church, if one does not have these dispositions (meaning one does not respond to the grace God offers), that person will be condemned on the day God judges all mankind.

[Parts taken from The Gospel of Matthew by Edward Sri and Curtis Mitch]

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente