Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)
Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Gospel Matthew 22:1-14 For the shorter form (22:1-10), omit the text in Brackets.] (English Standard Version Anglicised, India)
And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, “The
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for
his son, and sent
his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they
would not come. Again
he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have
prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered,
and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’ But they paid no attention and went off,
one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them
shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed
those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready,
but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding
feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the roads and gathered
all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with
guests.
[“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a
man who had no wedding garment. And he said to
him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he
was speechless. Then
the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into
the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.’ For many
are called, but few are chosen.”]
Latin of St Thomas Aquinas
Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
Dat panis cœlicus
figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum
pauper, servus et humilis.
English translation by John David Chambers
Thus Angels' Bread is made
the Bread of man today:
the Living Bread from heaven
with figures dost away:
O wondrous gift indeed!
the poor and lowly may
upon their Lord and Master feed.
The First Reading, the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel can be understood in a Eucharistic sense. The Prophet Isaiah's words can be seen as a description of the heavenly banquet to which we are all invited.
The words of St Thomas Aquinas set
to music by César Franck remind us that in
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of
Christ to nourish us on our journey through life, whether that journey be long
or short. In Psalm 22 [23] we pray, you have prepared a banquet for me.
In the Mass we are invited to participate in that banquet where Manducat
Dominum pauper et humilis - The poor and lowly may upon their Lord and Master
feed.
The words of the hymn, figuris terminum, translated above as with figures dost away, mean that what we receive in Holy Communion is not a symbol but the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And to receive such a precious Gift we need to prepare, with God's grace, to be as worthy as possible.
In the last part of
the Gospel, the section that may be omitted, Jesus speaks very harshly about
those who choose to turn up at the banquet unprepared by choice. St Paul deals
with this in the context of celebrating the Eucharist in 1 Corinthians
11:27-30: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks
the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty
concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so
eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body
eats and drinks judgement on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have
died.
Jesus gave a precious gift to the Church to help us to be prepared to receive him in the Eucharist when we have turned our backs on him through mortal sin, which breaks our relationship with God and can have eternal consequences: the sacrament of confession. Nobody is turned away from this, unless priests don't make themselves available.
God extends his invitation to all of us. Like some in the gospel we may ignore it because we are 'busy' with other things; we may reject it violently as some did; we may accept it while showing contempt towards the One who extended the invitation. Or we may accept it by preparing with God's grace to be worthy of the occasion.
+++
The news this last week has unexpectedly been dominated by the conflict between Israel and Gaza. More than a thousand deaths have been recorded on each side, the majority civilians, many of them children and young adults. Two earthquakes in Afghanistan this month have resulted in many deaths.
I first posted the video above of Patricia Janečková, the German-born Slovak soprano, singing Panis angelicus on 16 June last year. I added this note: Patricia Janečková was born on 18 June 1998 and was 19 when the video above was made. Last February she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Please pray for her full recovery. Sadly, Patricia died on 1 October. Last June she married actor Vlastimil Burda.
It is always difficult to come to terms with the death of someone who is young, whether the cause of death is war, an accident or illness. Jesus wept at the death of the young Lazarus. Part of the pain of loss iw what might have been in the future.
Yet our Christian faith gives us the hope of sharing in the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's readings point towards the heavenly banquet and the Eucharistic Banquet where we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus as our nourishment on our journey through this life.
We pray for the dead, those we have known personally, those we have known through their public lives, and those who have no one to pray for them by name. May the video below of Patricia Janečková singing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu be a prayer for her soul, for the souls of those who have died in the Gaza-Israel war and in other conflicts, for those who have died in recent natural calamities, for those who have nobody to pray for them by name and for those like Patricia who have died young.
At the same time may we thank God for the gift that each of those has been to those who knew and loved them and for the gift of Patricia who continues through her recorded voice to be an expression of God's beauty.
May we all sit down together at the heavenly banquet.
Traditional Latin Mass
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-15-2023 if necessary).
Epistle: Ephesians 5:15-21. Gospel: John 4:46-53.
Christ Healing the Sick
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