28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
We’re well acquainted with the two parables in today’s Gospel: the parable of the wedding invitation and the parable of the wedding garment. They’re obviously directed toward the religious leaders. But as always, we need to direct the parables to ourselves. What is Jesus telling us through these parables?
Each of us has been invited to the wedding feast in the kingdom of God through our baptism. However, many things distract us. The invitation asks us to make an interior break with everyday things of life, like our work, business concerns, and even family. “Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or fathers or mother or children for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29)”
Jesus is calling everyone to the kingdom of God, “good and bad alike.” But each of us must be properly clothed to enter the wedding banquet. Isaiah spoke of this. “He has clothed me with the robe of salvation, and wrapped me in the mantle of justice, like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10b). In the Beatitudes, Jesus listed what his followers were to wear: poverty of spirit, meekness, a thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, and peacemaking. Saint Paul put it this way to the Christians of Rome. “Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 13:12b-14)
Jesus expected a great deal from the religious leaders but was disappointed. They refused his invitation. We’re offered the same invitation, and we’re asked to prepare for the wedding banquet by clothing ourselves with Christ himself – interiorizing his teachings and values. To enter the feast, we must be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, it’s so difficult to follow you. You ask us to detach from the things we feel define who we are and make us feel successful. Drive our fear away. Help us open our spirits to you, let you in, and become you. Maranatha – come, Lord Jesus. Amen.
