God invites us to the banquet of Heaven

October 15–Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary TimeReadings; Isaiah 25: 6-10a; Psalm 23, R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Gospel—Matthew 22: 1-14T he Parable of the Kingdom gives us a rather dynamic perspective of the Kingdom of Heaven. It gives us a profile of the king, God, and the guests, us, and the resulting character or quality of the banquet, the Kingdom of Heaven, from the dynamics between the king and the guests.

First, the profile of the king as one who is generous and hospitable, preparing a sumptuous banquet for his guests. Even when his invitation was snubbed, he turned his graciousness toward others in the streets, whoever the servants could find, the “bad and good alike.”

The other side of this profile is the king who renders justice. Enraged by the murder of his servants, he punished the murderers. Sometimes we misinterpret this as simply a reaction to the snub. Some people have raised this question.

But we must note that he punished only the murderers, and not the others who ignored the invitation. Their punishment, missing the banquet, they brought upon themselves.

The final response of the king to the rejection was one of greater generosity, opening the banquet to all, the “bad and good alike.”

The wedding banquet was meant to be shared from the very beginning, and in this parable, it moved from the invited to all who wish to come.Once-in-a-lifetime experience

A note on the wedding banquet image: To better appreciate the lesson of the parable, we need to contextualize it according to the listeners of Jesus, who were the poor—the last, the lost and the least.

For the poor, the wedding banquet was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If invited to a wedding, they prepared the best of what they were to wear and waited for the day of the banquet with excitement.

This brings us to the second point, the profile of the guests, which has two basic sides also.

First were the guests on the original guest list. There were two types also. Both ignored the invitation and missed the banquet.

One was those who ignored because of other concerns, not bad or evil in themselves; one went to his farm and the other to his business. The others were the evil ones who not simply ignored the invitation, but even murdered the servants, the messengers.Then there was third group of guests who were the beneficiaries of the snub, the “bad and good alike” from the highways and the byways.

Of course, it is easy to point out that those on the original guest list were the chosen people who rejected Jesus and some who plotted his death, the religious authorities. Then the beneficiaries were the gentiles.

Let us “expand” and deepen our reflections on the types of guests by reflecting on them within the context of the dynamics between the king and the guests, or between God and us, and leading us to the character or quality of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Regarding the types of guests, for the majority of us, we all have a little bit of the three in us.

Sometimes we get caught in other concerns, not bad or evil in themselves, but still distract us from focusing on and deepening our relationship with God.

There are some, I believe a few, a minority, who are maliciously evil, e.g., end up murdering people, especially innocent people.

Then there are some who are “venially” bad. More of us are in this group, who are tempted to sin and at times succumb to the temptation.

Banquet for all

But at the end of it all, it is the generosity and mercy of the king that defines the banquet as a banquet for all who respond to the invitation—the bad and good alike.

God’s invitation is an invitation extended to all to enjoy His banquet, not just a heavenly feast, but a feast of His Kingdom here on earth: “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”It is an inclusive Kingdom, and our “ticket” into the banquet is our “yes” to God’s invitation in our day-to-day life.

I cannot help but end with the story of Pope Francis’ “yes” to the banquet when he experienced the mercy of God as a young man and journeyed into the seminary, then the priesthood leading to the papacy.

It is a papacy that constantly reminds us of God’s mercy, the inclusiveness of the Kingdom for the bad and good alike. He reminds us of the call to repentance and conversion individually and communally, as a church and as one human family.

In his recent audience, the Pope had this to say: “To feel ‘sorry for’ means to suffer with victims of the world’s inhumanity, and to feel sorry for those who commit errors and injustices, not justifying, but humanizing, through forgiveness always open to another chance, to open up paths of hope and allow for change.”

This is an invitation for us to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven by helping build this Kingdom here and now, responding to God’s invitation, living and working so his “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” —Contributed INQ

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