October 11th 2020. The Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 1-14

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 1-14

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding”.

So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”. For many are called, but few are chosen.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

Summary . . . In the parable of the wedding feast we find the strong and paradoxical language that would have been characteristic of the Jewish mode of expression two thousand years ago. A king organizes a wonderful banquet for his son’s wedding, but the invitees respond badly, even killing the messengers who bore the invitation. Why do they react so violently? Is this parable a bit “over the top”? But, if we think for a moment, it is actually quite common for us to be suspicious of God. We tend to think that talk of God and his invitation to follow him is all designed to trap us into doing something that we don’t want. We fear that God doesn’t really want us to be joyful but demands something burdensome and tedious from us. We have difficulty in appreciating that he is really calling us to true joy. As a result, we react to his invitation with coldness or aggression. We fear that God wishes to drag us away from the things that really matter to us. What are those things? The parable lists them: business, property, our own projects. But God is truly inviting us to authentic joy! The Gospel emphasizes this with the image of the sumptuous wedding feast rejected by people who are too busy with their tedious business affairs! At the end of the parable we hear of a person who has entered the wedding feast without the correct garment. Special garments would have been given at the entrance to the feast and this man evidently refused to put it on. To enter into God’s joy, we must change! We cannot enter into his joy if we are still weighed down by our own garment, our own way of hiding our nakedness, our fixations with our own concerns. The parable challenges us to leave our own affairs behind so that we can enter into the joyful affairs of God.

The Jewish mode of expression of two thousand years ago was strong and paradoxical. We must be ready for that when we read Jesus’ parables.

The Semitic language of the first century was paradoxical, and communication was often couched in strong words and by means of sharp contrasts. This is the language of the Gospels. Anyone who cannot accept this paradoxical language, will have difficulty understanding the language of Jesus of Nazareth. In Sunday's Gospel, we find this mode of expression.  The discourse goes from one extreme to another with great rapidity and with no middle ground. It is the story of a wedding invitation, that is, the call to something beautiful: “I have prepared the banquet; my oxen and fattened animals are already killed and everything is ready; come to the wedding!”

Why do the invitees react so violently? It is quite common that people are suspicious of God or of “goodness”. They think that talk of God or of virtue is just sophistry designed to trap us into doing something that we don’t want.

But the invitation to this banquet receives bitter and violent responses. Some of the invitees even insult and kill the messengers. They interpret the king's invitation as a form of aggression, something from which to defend oneself. Why so? It is actually common enough for people to react violently to others who have good intentions. Often, people try to do something beautiful and only get harsh, sarcastic and cold reactions. There is an ancient doubt sown in the heart of man: a suspicion of God and of goodness; a prejudice that talk of God or of virtue is only deceit or a waste of time, utopias that distract from the things that really matter.

We have a tendency to think that God wants something from us, something burdensome and tedious. We have difficulty in appreciating that he is really calling us to true joy. So we react to his invitation with coldness, aggression or violence. We fear that God wishes to drag us away from the things that really matter to us: business, property, projects, our own promotion.

This text challenges us to distinguish between authentic life and the materialistic life that we make into a priority. The wedding feast, an event of pure joy, represents life in its fullness. But the people invited are more interested in property, business and income. When God invites them to a party, they perceive this as a nuisance. Joy becomes a waste of time. By projecting our utilitarianism into God, we understand his invitations as traps. “God is like us”, we think. “Therefore his invitation is not really an invitation to joy but to get something out of us, something burdensome and tedious.” We have a tendency to perceive the relationship with God and his will as something that goes against the things that are really important to us: our business, our projects, our schemes. Instead, God’s invitation is truly an invitation to joy. The result is that these men end up working rather than enjoying a wedding party. It  doesn't seem like such a smart choice! Yet such is the stupidity of man, who prefers to continue to live in a state of anxious toil, oppressed by his endless chain of problems, rather than abandon himself to the love of the Father.

To enter into God’s joy, we must change our garment. We cannot enter into his joy if we are wearing the garment of sorrow, recrimination or revenge. We must leave our own affairs behind and enter into the joyful affairs of God.

Then there is the puzzle of the poor man who enters the wedding without the wedding garment. What we are not told is that a special robe would have been given to each guest at the entrance, and it can be deduced that this man refused the robe. It is clear that one cannot enter into God's joy without changing clothes. One cannot partake of the feast of God while continuing to hold on the old dress of one's failed efforts, one's useless fixations; there is a new garment to be put on. The master says: how dare you not change when you are with me? How can you continue to wear the garment of mourning when I have called you to joy, the garment of complaint when I have called you to happiness; the garment of revenge when I called you to love? It is time to leave our own affairs behind and enter into God's affairs, which is a joyful feast.