“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Thursday, 18th August 2016,
Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time
Ez 36:23-28;
Ps 50:12-15, 18-19;
Mt 22:1-14
THE WEDDING FEAST!
It is so consoling to think of the heaven as a wedding feast. Jesus must have loved wedding feasts and found them to be the closest analogy he could find to give us a peek into what God has prepared for us.
In the gospel reading, the king is frustrated because he made elaborate preparations for the celebration of his son's wedding, only to have little or no interest from the invited guests. There are many points at issue in this parable. Certainly one is that of invitation. God invites and does not force us. We can accept or reject. We are free. The seemingly harsh treatment of the man not properly dressed for the wedding banquet may cause wonder. Let us pay attention to it more closely. When the king notices him, the guest "was reduced to silence!' It is clear from the story that the person is without a wedding garment out of ingratitude and lack of serious respect for the king. It is not that the guest couldn't afford one.
We are invited into God's friendship. We are given sanctifying grace as a gift, but it is a gift involving responsibility. We must live out the Christian message which may necessitate change in values, habits, lifestyle. The man reportedly had nothing to say. He had not prepared for or entered into the wedding banquet.
The obvious parallel of the banquet in our lives is the Eucharist - a gift so sublime for which we are never worthy. Do we really mean the words that we recite before Holy Communion: Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed? So today, may this parable shake us out of my slothful self-satisfaction! Let us not take God for granted! Let us love God enough to sacrifice any convenience and comfort in order to say honestly, "To do your will, O my God, is my delight!'
Prayer: O God, thank You for inviting me to Your heavenly banquet. Amen.
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