“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Sunday, 15th October 2017.
Twenty Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Is 25: 6-10;
Ps 22:1-6;
Phil 4: 12-14, 19-20;
Mt 22:1-14
INVITATION TO THE WEDDING BANQUET
The wedding feast is the biblical image of the encounter of love between the Lord and Israel. In the parable of the Gospel, the bridegroom is Jesus, he is the son, and the bride is the whole of humanity which is madly loved by God. The banquet is the happiness of the Messianic era. The one who accepts the proposal of the gospel and enters into the kingdom of God experiences the most authentic and deep joy. In the Bible, the kingdom of God is not compared to a chapel where everyone prays devoutly and attentively. It is not imagined as a convent where one doesn’t hear the slightest noise, where nobody disturbs the meditation and ecstasy of others, but it is a banquet, where people meet, eat and drink their fill and talk and they party.
In the first reading the prophet promised that God would organize a banquet to celebrate the victory over death. Easter is the time of God’s triumph and is also the day on which the indissoluble marriages between Christ and humanity are celebrated. From then on, they no longer sense the sadness, mistrust, despair; all deaths were won; all the graves were opened wide.
The servants who have the task of taking the call are divided into three groups. The first two are the prophets of the Old Testament, until John the Baptist. They have carried out the task of preparing Israel to welcome Jesus, the bridegroom. They have not been successful. The third group indicates the apostles and all of us; the results obtained by them are much better.
The first invitees did not come to the party; they didn’t have the heart to abandon their interests, the field and business. They did not need a banquet; they felt satiated, believed that they already have what is needed for a life without problems. They represent the spiritual leaders of Israel, satisfied with the given religious structure that offered them security before men and before God. Those who are not aware of their poverty, who do not hunger and thirst for a new world, will never enter the kingdom of God. They will adapt to the meanness with which they usually live. Only the poor are able to understand the gratuitousness of God’s love.
In today’s Gospel the evangelist Matthew allegorically reflects on the whole history of salvation, The parable compares the kingdom of God to a wedding banquet, as is found in today’s first reading from Isaiah, which looks at the Kingdom of God, the great banquet feast of the Lord as something in the future which the Lord will provide on the mountain of the Lord (namely Jerusalem). This Kingdom of God is promised as a radically new reality – where the veil of death will be wiped away, thus fuelling the expectations of the people who awaited the promised Messiah. However Isaiah would also symbolize the coming of the Messiah by a wedding banquet – where there would be choicest food and wines.
Matthew portrays God’s offer of the Kingdom of God as a gift which is to be accepted. It is not something which one’s strives after, but something which one accepts as a gift from God and his son Jesus. However, the motif of the wedding banquet is quickly changed into a final judgment on the people of Israel. These are ultimately judged for not accepting God’s offer of his Kingdom in the person of his son Jesus. The theme of judgment also continues to the Christian communities who have now accepted the Kingdom of God. Therefore the kingdom of God, though it is a gratuitous gift from, demands a response. To accomplish this, we need to give up the old way of life and put on the identity of Christ in our lifestyle or in other words put on the armour of God. Our acceptance of the Kingdom of God is demonstrated by our response to the gift. When God calls me to follow him, I need to respond to him spontaneously with the strength that he imbues in the quintessence of my being.
Prayer: Lord, I give to You my whole life. May I always be open to You in every way, seeking to receive every word sent forth from Your merciful heart. May I also seek to be used by You so as to bring the invitation of Your mercy to a world in need. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen