28th Sunday of the Year A

Nikola Saric

 28^th Sunday of the Year A

Readings: Isaiah 25:6‑10  Philippians 4:12‑14, 19‑20  Matthew  22:1‑14

            In today's Gospel Jesus attacks the chief priest and elders with the parable of the wedding feast.  As we hear the repeated  invitations to come to God's joyful banquet, let us sing in hope  the refrain of this Sunday's responsorial psalm: "I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life" (Ps 23).

            Isaiah's vision in the first reading gives a joyful picture of the final messianic banquet on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.  There are places for both Jews and Gentiles at the "feast of rich food and choice wines."  The prophet envisions "the Lord of hosts" providing "for all peoples" and destroying "the veil that veils all peoples."  He also speaks of the Lord God removing "the reproach of his people" (the Jews) who rejoice in his salvation.     

            On that day it will be said:

                          "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!

                          This is the Lord for whom we looked;

                           let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"

            The second reading continues the selections from Paul's letter to the Philippians with a "thank you note" to the community for the care package they have sent to him in prison through their brother Epaphroditus.  It reflects Paul's understanding of the "share" that he and the church at Philippi have in the spreading of the gospel of the crucified Christ.  Paul, somewhat proud of  his capacity to suffer for the gospel, is almost embarrassed by the gift, and therefore begins by insisting that in Christ, he  has "learned how to cope with every circumstance‑‑ how to eat well  or go hungry, to be well provided for or do without."  But, almost despite his tendency to rugged independence in Christ, Paul is grateful for the Philippians' "share" in his "hardships," and he prays that God in turn will supply their needs in Christ.

            The parable of the king's wedding feast for his son is the last of three parables that Jesus addresses to the chief priests and elders, condemning them for their failure to respond to God's repeated calls to repentance and entrance into the kingdom.   (Recall the two previous Sundays in which we read the parables of the two sons and the wicked tenants.) 

            The allegory of the wedding feast begins with great joy as the king issues a twofold invitation to the guests who have been invited to his son's wedding feast.

                         “Tell those who were invited, See, I have my dinner

                         prepared!  My bullocks and corn‑fed cattle are killed;

                        everything is ready.  Come to the feast.”

Sadly, the invited guests refuse both invitations out of worldly concerns and even react violently against the king's servants.

                 Some ignored the invitation and went their way,

                        one to his farm, another to his business. 

                        The rest laid hold of his servants, insulted them,

                        and killed them.

At this point, it is clear that the parable is an allegory for the religious leaders' repeated refusal to respond to God's invitation to the son's kingdom and the joys of the messianic banquet.

            The king's response is twofold.  In anger, he sends his army against the leaders' city to destroy it, an allegory for the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies in 70 A.D.  And secondly, he sends his servants “into the byroads" to "invite to the wedding anyone you come upon."  For Matthew, this is an allegory for the spread of the gospel message among the Gentiles. These new guests fill up the wedding hall, but, we learn, they are made up of both “bad as well as good.” 

            For Matthew, to be invited to the banquet is not enough.   One must also respond with the proper deeds of repentance and good works (see Matt 5:13‑48), and therefore he adds a second  parable about the man without the proper wedding garment who is asked by the king, “My friend how is it you came in here not  properly dressed?”  Those "invited are many," but they must respond properly if they are to be considered the elect who will fully enjoy the wedding feast of the son.

            Although Matthew understood this parable as an allegory for the rejection of Jesus by the religious leaders of his time, we, Christians living in the early twenty-first century, should hear the parable as an invitation and warning not to miss the joyful summons to experience God's kingdom in the midst of our busy lives.  In the parable some of those invited respond violently, but others miss the invitation simply because they are distracted by the ordinary affairs of life.  “Some ignored the invitation and went their way, one to his farm, another to his business.”