Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the 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 the king 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. He 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:
The story is told about a man that died; a few moments after his death he
saw two places one was a fiery place with souls in terrible torment. The other
one was a bright and heavenly place with joyous souls. A booming voice asked
him: Where would you choose to be? The man quickly replied: I chose the bright
and heavenly place.
When he was about to enter the pearly gates he was barred from entering.
After which a loud voice boomed and said: Why are you trying to desperately
enter now? Do you remember when you were still alive? I invited you to church
for countless times but you did not give any importance to my invitations. You
gave more priority to your temporal and worldly activities.
In our gospel Jesus gives a parable about a wedding feast, the king
ordered the servants to invite the chosen guests. But they were all busy so
they ignored the invitation they instead went to their usual daily engagements.
One went to his farm, another to his business. The others that were invited had the temerity
to kill the messengers of the king.
The king represents God and He perpetually invites us all to be present
in the weeding banquet that is the celebration of the Holy Mass. We oftentimes encounter
people urging us to be present at Holy Mass, to read the bible, to pray and be
connected with God. They are the messengers or servants of God sent by Him for
us to be closer to Him. Why? Because God wants us to be His close friends this
is the primary reason why He always invites us to His feast.
But what is our reaction to His perpetual invitation? We often times
ignore it for the reason that we are so much busy with the things of this
temporary world. We ignore it until we become aware of our own mortality so we
are forced to know and discover God because we are already in dire need of Him.
We are right now inside an extra-ordinary time caused by the covid-19
pandemic. So many of us are not able to be physically present at Holy Mass. But
there are other ways for us to respond to this call. For example we can watch
Holy Mass online, on TV or listen via radio. Therefore, if we would desire to
respond we can actually respond but most often than not our reason is we have
no time.
But the irony of it all is we create time for the things of this world
but we can’t create time for God. Why wait for that time when we are already
sickly or near death before we respond? Why not respond now to His
invitation while we are still in the pink of health? – Marino J. Dasmarinas