Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
I call myself a ‘foodie.’ Besides theology, I understand food. I love good food and I love trying out new food. I cook my food with passion. I am not a big eater but whatever I eat needs to excite my palette. For me, food is not just about the body; it is also about the soul. And that is why there is nothing I detest more than fast food or eating alone. Food is meant to be shared. If I get time, I cook for the staff the best part of it is sharing it with them.
Because I am a foodie, I totally get today’s scripture readings. Hear this from Isaiah: “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines; juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” I totally get the reason why life at God’s mountain is compared to a great feast with juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. Jesus continues this theme in today’s gospel reading as he uses the analogy of a wedding feast to teach important lessons about the kingdom of God.
Let me offer three points in reflection:
a) The Analogy of a Feast. A feast symbolizes joy. This is even truer of a wedding feast which is associated with love, celebration, joy, contentment, happiness and life. Nobody throws a feast to mourn. The analogy of good food and rich wine is meant to capture in human terms the love, the life and joy of being in God’s presence. That is why, right after talking about rich, juicy food and rich wine, Isaiah transports us to another place. Isaiah says, “On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth.” In the parable of the wedding feast, Jesus throws an open invitation to share in the fullness of God’s joy, love and life.
Scripture scholars have spent chapters and pages writing about the ‘table-fellowship’ that Jesus had during his ministry. In fact, it is possible to interpret Jesus’ entire life from the perspective of his meals with people, especially sinners. These meals were opportunities for people to experience the new life, new love and new joy that God was offering to humanity. Think about the feast in Zaccaheaus’ house. Think about the feast at the house of the Pharisee where the woman came, wept at Jesus’ feast and found acceptance. Thank about the wedding at Cana. Who among us does not want to be on this mountain? This is why it is also tragic that in the parable that there were those who refused the invitation. But those who remained open to a God of love rather than a God of self-righteousness were being welcomed in the kingdom of God.
b) Who is Invited to the Feast? Last Monday and Tuesday, more than a thousand parish staff, including pastors and lay people gathered at the Dayton convention center for an archdiocesan summit. The theme of the summit was “Equipping Disciples for a New Missionary Age.” The Keynote speaker was the bishop of Bridgeport, CN, Frank Caggiano. If the purpose of his talk was to identify that which would set the church apart in today’s world, he very eloquently accomplished the purpose. The central point made was that as a church, “it is time for us to reclaim love.” It seems that sometimes the church is more concerned about who cannot be in communion rather than finding ways to bring people into communion. He said, “The religion of love” he said, “can only be reclaimed by love.” And he also emphatically added, “In the kingdom of God, there is room for everyone.”
This last thought is important. Isaiah says, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for “all peoples” a feast….” Everybody is invited. In the gospel reading, when the initial invitation was declined by the invitees, the king sent an invitation to “whomever,” the good and bad alike. And they all came. As a Catholic Christian today, like bishop Caggiano, I too believe the primary message of the gospel is not who is in and who out, but rather, that God invites us all. This is message that we must reclaim in the new missionary age. If Jesus proclaimed love and if that is the good news for which the feast is thrown, then, we must reclaim that love. We are Christians and we are believers in cross of Jesus Christ. In our personal lives and as a parish community, let us try very hard to reclaim the good news of love, with love.
c) One Guest Thrown Out? I want to address the question about the person who was thrown out of the wedding feast because he did not have wedding garments. What shall we make of that? If all are invited, why is he thrown out? God’s open invitation does not mean that there are no expectations from the guests. As I said earlier, a wedding is associated with love, celebration, joy, happiness and life. No one comes to a wedding feast out of hate. Someone who comes to a wedding with hate has no place in the feasting. In other words, if the wedding feast represents life with God, then we can think of the person without the wedding garment as a person whose values are irredeemably inconsistent with God’s unconditional love. For example, there is no place for hatred in God’s life. There is no place for destructive greed in God’s life. Our self-sufficiency will only take us thus far. Before we leave the face of the earth it would be wise for us to be close to the image of Christ.
In many ways, this Eucharist is a foretaste of the wedding feast. This Eucharist is a foretaste of our life with God. On that day “God will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face.” On that day we will cry out, “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!” Till then, at every Eucharist we will continue to invite God into our lives and become part of the totality of God’s life. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph