28TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR A 23

28th SUNDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2023, ISAIAH 25. 6-10A; PHILIPPHIANS 4. 12-14, 19-20; MATTHEW 22. 1-14 Focus: Super-nourished! Indicative: God always wants to feed and strengthen us with the choicest nourishment but it needs a willing and receptive response   1. Truly powerfully comforting and soul-soothing are the words about God in the first reading from prophet Isaiah. "The Lord God will wipe away tears from every face, He will remove the reproach of His people from the face of the earth. This is the Lord God for whom we looked. He has come and saved us".   2. Are these not words that assure and lift up our drooping spirits? He will feed us with the choicest food and drink and take away the veil of our sadness, He will grace us again with renewed dignity, He will liberate us from the snares and assaults of the evil one.   3.Certainly, in a struggling situation of want and deprivation, disgrace and shame, anxiety and sadness, entanglement and enslavement, this benevolent intervention of God which relieves and retrieves, is truly heart-embalming.   4. God wants constantly to raise us up, into a new realm of abundance, taste, honour, liberation and joy. Even though we are unworthy and undeserving, yet He treats us with so much respect and concern. He never ceases to invite us for the royal and sumptuous banquet, ever making us aware of its immensity and not-to-miss quality.   5. This banquet prepared by God can refer to the sacramental Eucharistic banquet of love and communion with God, to the fraternal banquet of unity and charity, and also to the eschatological banquet of eternal life. Thereby, we are ceaselessly called to feed ourselves on the Eucharistic Lord and to grow in deep intimacy and union with him. We are also called to nurture and foster the spirit of fraternal duty and joy. Further, we are also called to be ever conscious of our heavenly banquet and to strive hard to become sharers of its richness.   6. In response to such a lavish generosity of God, there can be different responses in the light of the gospel. First, there are some who evade and keep away from it. They give all lame excuses, which are often the worldly preoccupations and self-interests. Shrouded and blinded by the self-centred pursuits, they lose sight of the incomparable value of the royal banquet.   7. Secondly, there are some who not only not respond positively, but even violently react toward God's invitations and messages. They become malicious and pernicious, for no reason. Perhaps, the benevolence of God the King itself becomes irksome and disturbing for these, and so they resent and try to eliminate anything connected to God. They realise very little that it is no favour to God but for their own benefit. These are the ones who are so resentful and hostile toward the church or true religion and any spiritual activities or directives of God.   8. Finally, like the wedding guest without the wedding garment, there are those who take for granted God's rich offers, those who take light the immense value of the banquet of God's feed through numerous gifts and blessings. They are greatly blessed, finding entrance to the banquet hall. They enjoy the honours and privileges, of being shares of God's banquet of blessings. But they do not bother to put on the wedding garment.   9. Already they do not deserve that honour, which is mercifully bestowed by God. They completely forget their essential duty of trying to merit what is gifted to them unmeritedly. What they were before being privileged, is one thing. But what they should be after being honoured, is quite another thing. And the people of this category fail to note this essential difference, and fail to live up to their new honour.    10. This is exactly the case of all those followers of Jesus, whether they are authority, priests or religious or lay people. They do not live up to the new dignity, which is the wedding garment of holiness and benevolence. They do not try at all to merit what they are generously given without their merit    11. Rather, they continue as in the old. They are at a wedding without the wedding garment. They perform rituals of holiness without growing holy. They bless many without becoming blessed. They preach and instruct others, but without being touched and without practising. They guide others but themselves live misguided. They demand values from others but they themselves are without principles and values.   12. Where are we? How foolish we will be to forfeit God's grace and spiritual banquets, in preference to shallow interests and lesser gains! How sad it is that receiving God's messages incessantly, we continue resentful, negative, and hostile, aggressive, manipulative, and harmful? What a loss it is that we go about our sacred duties and treat our blessings and honours in a very casual and mediocre way,    Imperative: What an irony it is to be Enjoying the greatest privileges, but not trying at all to make oneself "fit" and "equipped" with the wedding garment of renewal and virtue! (Reflection 2) Focus: God always invites us to go to him, to experience his nearness and closeness, and to share in his banquet of love. It needs a willingness to respond to his invitation   1.      The scene of the wedding banquet in the gospel, Matthew 22. 1-14 represents the approach of our present society toward God. God, like the king in the story always invites us to be sharers in the joy of the wedding feast of his Son. Through His Son Jesus, He wants to rejuvenate our life. He offers salvation to all, and salvation is nothing but sharing God’s own joy. 2.      If sin has cast a veil of gloom over humanity, God wants to replace it with a wedding garment of joy and recharge. In general, life itself is the biggest banquet of God’s love and mercy, and also of fraternal sharing and joy. God continues to send His invitation for this celebration through various servants. These servants may be all the ways and means that channel us His grace. They may be in the form of the different spiritual and fraternal moments and activities of communion. They constantly try to motivate us, inspire us, illumine us, purify us, guide us, solidify and sanctify us. 3.      Nevertheless, the Holy Eucharist is the greatest banquet that is set before us. It stands for us as the immense fount of an abundance of new life through God’s own love, light, strength, and joy. And what is notable is He invites us even though we are unworthy and do not deserve it. 4.      But, sadly the responses to this divine invitation are often varied and negative. Many do not realize the value of this banquet. They are indifferent. They take it lightly. They are preoccupied with many worldly affairs and are engrossed in them. Some not only refuse to respond and share in God’s presence and fraternal communion but also directly oppose and do harm. 5.      And even with those who respond and are present also, there is no guarantee of a good disposition and heart. They may not bother to put on the wedding garment. They do not try to make themselves worthy participants.   Direction: What is our response to God’s unceasing invitation to celebrate life and the Holy Eucharistic banquet? Are we so much carried away by worldly pleasures and pressures that we forfeit the grace and joy of this celebration of communion with God and with others?