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 you going to do if, for example, a neighbor invites you to go to church for Holy Mass? Would you accept it or not? It would be easy to accept the invitation for those who grew up 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.
But what are you missing when you refuse the invitation of the Lord to be present at Holy Mass? You miss being in heaven for an hour while you are still here on earth. You miss attending the holiest and most 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 about is our willingness to be with Him at Holy Mass so that He could bless us.
If our focus is always on our personal and worldly activities, we would end up with nothing eventually. What is the purpose of all these worldly activities when none of them are permanent and lasting? We will leave all of them behind when we eventually die. Many of these worldly undertakings that we prioritize over our worship for God could even result in the disintegration of our family or could even lead to illness.
By the way, what would it benefit you if you possess all the material riches in this world, yet you don't have Jesus in your life?- Marino J. Dasmarinas
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