Fr. Roger J. Landry
Conversations with Consequences Podcast
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
October 10, 2020
To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below:
The text that guided the homily was:
- This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a privilege for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday.
- In the Gospel, Jesus speaks to us about the kingdom of heaven, the invitation he has given us to join him there forever, and about how we need to respond to that invitation. He does so within the context of a parable about salvation history in which he illustrates for us, basically, how not to respond. He concludes the parable by saying, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” We obviously want to be numbered among the “chosen few.” The chosen ones are not those whom God somehow favors over others. They are those who respond fully to having been chosen by God. Therefore it’s important for us to pay close attention to what Jesus tells us today that we will respond to his invitation, choose him who has chosen us, and help the “many” we know also learn how to become among the chosen as well!
- Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding banquet a king is throwing for his son. God wants all to come to this feast, he wishes all people to be saved, but there are three parts of this parable that we need to ponder:
- The first is the invitation. Jesus says that the King sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. When they didn’t respond the first time, he gave them a second chance. He sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and my fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the feast.’” But again they made light of it. One went to his farm, another to his business, and yet others seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The servants that Jesus has been describing up until now are the prophets who had been sent by God to invite the Jews to this feast, but, as we talked about last week in Jesus’ parable of the tenant farmers in the Master’s vineyard, all of the prophets were mistreated and killed by the people receiving this invitation to communion with God. Only some, like obviously the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, the Apostles and those who became Jesus’ disciples, responded to Jesus’ invitation.
- But God kept inviting still. The servants went out a third time and “gathered all whom they found, both good and bad,” Jesus says, “so the wedding hall was filled with guests.” This is the mission of the Church. We don’t have a Church only for the good and the holy. All are invited. We shouldn’t be surprised, therefore, that in the Church we find great saints and great sinners, that we find the faithful and the hypocrites. Some respond to the invitation by showing up but without conversion. They are invited, but not chosen, because they cooperate with God’s desire to choose them. We see this in what Jesus says about the wedding garment: “When the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man there who was not dressed in a wedding garment, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
- At first glance, it might seem that the King is both crazy and cruel. He commanded his servants to invite the man to the feast and then he’s picky about what he’s wearing? The truth is that in the ancient world, when kings would summon everyone to the feast, they, knowing that many would be poor and not have proper vesture, would normally send out the royal tailors to make proper clothing for everyone invited or otherwise provided fitting clothing. It would be like a rich man today inviting a bunch of homeless people to a black-tie dinner but then giving them free hotel rooms to shower and providing free tuxedos, shoes and gowns to wear. With this history, it’s not difficult to recognize why the king would be so upset about seeing this improperly attired man: this man deliberated refused to wear the clothing that was required and made available. The lesson for all of us is that it’s not enough just to show up. We, too, have to be properly dressed for the feast. But we have to ask: What clothing has been provided for us? What does God want us wearing? What apparel is fit for this banquet? God wants us to show up with the garment he himself gave us when we became his adopted children. As we were vested with our baptismal garment, the baptizing cleric said to us, “You have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” Christ himself is meant to be our garment! We are to be clothed in him, in his risen life. As long as we live in him, vest ourselves in his virtues, then we will always be ready and unstained for eternal life. And God provides the dry-cleaning business for our baptismal garment in the Sacrament of Confession, where the blood of the Lamb is, paradoxically, the most powerful bleach ever known.
- “Come to the Feast,” the King in the Parable tells us today. He says it first about the Mass on earth and second about what the Mass points to, heaven. About both we can say, “Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.” If we put God first, respond to his invitation in life by coming to Church, arrive properly dressed in an unstained baptismal garment, and seek to invite others to join us, we can be confident that we will be ready to greet him whenever he comes to call us to the eternal wedding banquet. This will be the best means for us to be numbered among the “chosen few” who will say, in the words of King David from the psalm we’ll hear tomorrow, “I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”
The Gospel on which the homily was based was:
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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