SUNDAY, TWENTY EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Is 25: 6-10; Ps 23: 1-6; Phil 4: 12-14, 19-20; Mt 22: 1-14
POOR IN SPIRIT, ANSWER GOD’S INVITATION!
God who is all powerful in his kindness always finds means and ways to lavish his love on all his children. The love of God for humanity is unfathomable story but the way humanity responds to God’s love is another story altogether. Prophet Isaiah’s words in today’s first reading are centered around the eschatological feast. God will prepare a banquet for all the peoples of the earth and destroy death forever. The symbolic sacrifice of fat which the Israelites used to offer to God, now God will share with his people that is, a feast of rich food, of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow. This means that the fat which was normally reserved for God, God will share with the human beings. Thus, humanity sharing in the food which belong to God, once reserved for Him, death will be vanquished.
On the mountain of the Lord, God’s people find refuge and salvation from their enemies. While this was historically fulfilled in Israel’s deliverance from its earthly enemies, the passage points beyond cities or historical events to a deeper mystery of salvation. God now seeks to deliver His people from the tyrant within the pride that takes root in the human heart. Thus, the poor who place their hope in God find true salvation when He frees them from pride and leads them into the spiritual poverty of complete dependence on Him.
We see the secret of this spiritual poverty in Paul. He had learned how to be satisfied in all circumstances and was always grateful for the help he received from others. He knew how to live in poverty and in abundance, he possessed the virtue of sufficiency. For Paul, this “sufficiency” was founded on the help of the Lord who gave him strength. The poor of the Lord participated in the feast prepared by the Lord himself. But each human being must make a choice to respond to God’s feast of love. In the parable of the wedding banquet, Jesus tells us that many do not respond to his invitation. When he sent his prophets, his own people did not listen to them but rather rejected their message. They even went to the extent of insulting and killing them. When we compare today’s parable to the history of the people of Israel, we see that God is the king who sent the invitation of wedding banquet to his people. But Jerusalem, who rejected the invitation and mistreated the prophets, was burned down by Nebuchadnezzar who was God’s instrument of chastisement.
But the celebration does not end, God who is mercy itself now extends his invitation not only to the lost sheep of Israel but to all the peoples of the earth, through his servants the prophets, apostles and evangelists. Even here we see that not all respond with the sincerity of faith. The one who is invited must prove himself/ herself to participate in the heavenly banquet. What does one need to do to be worthy? One must have a sincere desire to change and be committed to live according to the ways of God in his/her sphere of life. The Wedding garment is the willingness to change. God provides grace to everyone who makes effort to answer His invitation. Those who are poor in spirit, realize their need for God and respond to his invitation. Those who do not respond worthily to God’s invitation receive a harsh judgment in the parable of today, which is applied to all who are faithless. But let us not forget what Jesus told St. Faustina. Jesus told her that before he comes as a just judge, He opens the door of mercy to every human being.
Today, St. Paul is an example for us. He was the one, who though ignorant in his pride and zeal, persecuted the church of Christ. But when he realized his mistake after his encounter with the risen Lord, he was a different person transformed through grace. He learnt to face every situation that life afforded him, all because he was dependent on God. The people of Israel saw themselves as God’s chosen; Jesus reminds us that those who faithfully respond to God’s call are the truly “chosen of God.”
Response: In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for length of days unending.
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