28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Fr. Vinner)
HEAVENLY BANQUET
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus,
Today, we are all invited to the heavenly banquet by our Lord Jesus. Let us be happy and thankful to God that we may prepare ourselves worthily to participate in the Eucharistic banquet.
The first reading speaks about the great feast hosted by our Lord on His Holy Mountain. Where his chosen people can participate or those who are accepted the invitation of the Lord can be the part of His celebration. First, we must understand, any celebration that we celebrate, we used to invite our close neighbors and friends; it is our common phenomena whereas God sends an open invitation to all of us. It is not physical invitation but it is a spiritual invitation where we receive the food of salvation and the eternal banquet. All can come for the celebration but there is requirement is necessary because that will give the credibility to participate for the feast.
This requirement is seen in today’s Gospel, the king came to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in wedding garment. The king said to him, ‘my friend how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment? But he was reduced to silence. In the wedding dress is normally white; here the white garment gives us a symbolic meaning that is Holiness and righteousness and The signification of white is truth, but properly the Lord’s righteousness and merit, and derivatively the Lord’s righteousness and merit in man. It is also referred to the Psalm 51:7 “you shall purify me with hyssop, and I shall be whiter than snow” to wash, and to be made whiter than snow, denotes to be purified from sins by the reception and putting on the lord’s righteousness.
Just as the king provided wedding garments for his guests, God provides salvation for mankind. Our wedding garment is the righteousness of Christ, and unless we have it, we will miss the wedding feast. When the religions of the world are stripped down to their basic tenets, we either find man working his way toward God, or we find the cross of Christ. The cross is the only way to salvation (John 14:6).
For his crime against the king, the improperly attired guest is thrown out into the darkness. For their crimes against God, there will be many who will be consigned to “outer darkness” — existence without God for eternity. Christ concludes the parable with the sad fact that “many are invited, but few are chosen.” In other words, many people hear the call of God, but only a few heed it. The Parable of the Wedding Feast is also a warning to us, to make sure we are relying on God’s provision of salvation, not on our own good works or religious service.
Let us rely on God’s provision that God may fully supply whatever we need. Then we can say, ‘we can do all things in him who strengthens us and may the loving God purify our heart and mind and thus, we shall be worthy to receive eternal reward. We need to participate in the Eucharistic banquet with proper preparation by repenting of our sins and by actively participating in the prayers and singing during the Holy Mass. Participating in Holy Mass is the best preparation and source of power for our future participation in the Heavenly banquet.
May God Bless us all,
FR.S.Vinner HGN