 Isaiah 25.6-10
Philippians 4.12-14, 19-20
Matthew 22.1-14
The Banquet is prepared. The Hall is ready. The food is on the table. The King has issued the invitations for his son’s wedding feast. You have received one. Your name and RSVP is written on it. He is waiting for your reply. Come!
The feast we are called to share is the eternal banquet that awaits the redeemed in heaven, but we must remember that it begins here on earth. Heaven does not begin when we die; it begins the moment we open our lives to God and decide to follow him. The aperitif is already available for those who don the wedding garment. Ask anyone who has already responded and they will tell you.
The Bridegroom will feed us now (The Eucharist – his Body and Blood; The Scriptures – his Word) so long as we approach him wearing the right heart and mind, dressed in the right attitude and openness, and clothed with a sincere desire to be spiritually fed.
The Bridegroom longs to have us share in his banquet but to be admitted to the Hall and to receive the foretaste it is necessary that we respond now to his invitation and be of the right disposition (the wedding garment) to receive what he wants to give. We must not presume we will be admitted otherwise. We must not put it off to later. Later may be too late.
Do you have any excuses at this moment in your life for turning down his invitation? Are you really so foolish?
A Reflection by Fr Pat Kelly SMA first published in 2017
To listen to an alternative Homily for this Sunday, from Fr Tom Casey of the SMA Media Centre, Ndola, Zambia please click on the play button below.
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