XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A - October 11, 2020 - Catholic Newman Center at UH

by Fr. Charles Johnson, O.P.

XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A – October 11, 2020
God’s invitation: A call to be included, a call to relationship
Readings: Isaiah 25: 6-10a / Psalm 23 / Philippians 4: 12-14, 19-20 / Matthew 22: 1-14

I have heard this said more than once: “The best evidence that Christ is still with us and that his Holy Spirit resides in the Church is that after 2,000 years, the Church still exists and continues her mission.”

This insight shows that something is at work, something is very true: God cares for us, he loves humanity. Why is it that God cares so much for us? In Psalm 8, King David asks of God, “What are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them?” Has anybody ever told God that he cares too much for us, that he is too merciful and patient with us? Do we, his children, care about God? Are we grateful to him?

In today’s reading, from the 22^nd chapter of Matthew, just like the previous two Sundays, Jesus tells parables that show God persisting in being generous to us as he keeps giving “second chances” or keeps inviting us and those who have strayed from him. Today’s parable makes it obvious that in his mind, the more, the better.

The king’s wedding feast for his son was at first meant to be an exclusive gathering of invited guests but ended up being a banquet for the excluded. In a sense, we return to the “reversal” theme to describe the parable, similar to three weeks ago in chapter 20 and the parable of the “Workers in the Vineyard” and the generous owner.

What is intended with all this? Do you ever wonder what Christ is getting at? Notice the coherence of the Lord’s message in the Gospels. He continues to teach how God thinks and acts and what it means to be a part of his Heavenly Father’s kingdom.

In a homily he gave on this reading, Pope Francis points out an important aspect when he says, “Despite the lack of response from those called, God’s plan is never interrupted.” When the invited guests, the exclusive ones we can think, refuse the invitation and, even worse, mistreat and kill the messengers, the king simply keeps inviting and expands the circle of the invited. Not only that, but he expands the circle to include even, the “bad and the good alike.” Those who were marginalized and excluded are now included.

Even though the message is bold, let us take care to avoid political and ideological connotations. The challenge is for us to conform to the Gospel lesson, not vice-versa. As I mentioned last Sunday, God looks out on the world and perceives more than we are able or willing to recognize and accept. His love is not stagnant or theoretical. Rather, in love, God continually seeks out and invites all people in and through Christ, who is, as Pope Francis reminds us, “the face of the Father’s mercy.”

While God loves everyone equally, he has a special place for those who have been left behind, overlooked by the world and those who suffer. In short, the excluded, the forgotten. In his powerful exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis shines a light on this gaping wound of humanity in our times when he writes, “Those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers” (#53).

As the king orders his servants in the parable, we are called to go out beyond the preferred invitees and seek those who have been beyond the normal reach of our thinking. From God’s perspective it is about the embrace of his love and mercy, which encompasses all so that none are excluded.

However, the invitation to the feast is a call to relationship, not just being brought passively into some new group or gathering. The invitation, even though free and generous, awaits an affirmative response and grateful and joyful acceptance. My former prior when I was a Dominican seminarian, Fr. R.B. Williams, O.P., highlights this dynamic sense of invitation and response as he writes:

We may consider ourselves fortunate to be believers in Jesus and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. But that does not give us the right to take it for granted. The guest who came without a wedding garment discovered that the invitation also meant responsibility... We are invited to the banquet but not on our own terms.

Being there, while good, is not enough. God calls and invites out of love. Are we willing to participate in his feast and share its graces with others? The Lord desires that we be present at his table and create space for those who never seem to be included on the guest list. It is not about being invited to become satiated, but to imitate the bountiful love of Christ who not only invites but goes out to welcome, goes out to bring in the lost and excluded and is overjoyed to see us happy at his feast.

Is there space at the Lord’s table, in his banquet? Yes, there is plenty. The question remains, is their space on our calendar, in our lives and in our hearts for Christ, especially in the faces of those whom he has invited, but perhaps we were not expecting to see.

Peace be with you!
Fr. Charles Johnson, O.P.