Gospel: Matthew
22:1-14
Jesus
again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables,
saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding
feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to
the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants,
saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and
fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some
ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was
enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then
he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were
not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the
feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered
all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But
when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a
wedding garment. The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in
here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king
said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the
darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are
invited, but few are chosen."
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Reflection:
What are
we going to do if say for example a neighbor would invite us to go to church
for Holy Mass? Should we accept it or
not? It would be easy to accept the
invitation for those who grew attending Holy Mass. But it would also be hard to
accept the invitation if those who are being invited are not regular Sunday
Mass goers. We would use or even create every available means to avoid going
there.
But what
are we missing when we refuse the invitation of the Lord to be present at Holy
Mass? We miss being in heaven for an hour while we are still here on earth. We
miss to attend the holiest and blessings filled gathering of people.
In our
gospel, those who were invited refused the invitation of the king to attend the
wedding feast of his son. For they all have their own preoccupations and
priorities, but come to think of it; what is one hour for the wedding
feast? What is one hour for our
attendance at Holy Mass compared to seven days or 168 hours that we give to our
personal lives in a week?
Jesus in
the gospel invites us to go to Holy Mass, He doesn’t care about who we are: How
sinful we are, how poor or rich we are. What the good Lord only cares is our
willingness to be with Him at Holy Mass so that He could spiritually bless our
empty and barren lives.
If our
focus is always with our personal and worldly activities we will end-up with
nothing eventually. What is with all of these worldly activities when all of these
are not permanent and lasting? When all of these we will leave behind when we
eventually die! Many of these worldly undertakings that we prioritize over our
worship for Jesus could even result to the disintegration of our family/families. Or could
even result to our getting sick!
What
would it benefit us if we gain all the material riches of this world yet we
don’t have Jesus in our lives? - Marino J. Dasmarinas
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