Supper at Emmaus (detail), Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]
Readings
(New American Bible:
Philippines, USA)
Readings
(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables,
saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a
wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been
invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent
other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared
my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is
ready; come to the wedding banquet.” But they made light of it and went
away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his
slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent
his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said
to his slaves, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go
therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding
banquet.” Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom
they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
[‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he
noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to
him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” And he was
speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot,
and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’]
Swing made of tyres, East Timor [Wikipedia]
A friend of mine who has four young children and who now lives in California posted on her
Facebook that the authorities in some school are removing the
swings from its playground because they are 'dangerous' for children. I wonder
if the committee in the Vatican who drew up the Lectionary we have been using since
1969 thought that some of the words of Jesus might be 'dangerous' for us since
they have given us the option today of leaving out the last four verses of the
Gospel [in square brackets above].
In Matthew 3:7 Jesus addresses some Pharisees and
Sadducees with the words, You brood of vipers!, which he repeats in
12:34 and in 23:34 he's even more scathing: You snakes, you brood of
vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?
The words of Jesus aren't always 'nice'. And not
all the words in the homily of Pope Francis on 5 October 2014 at the Holy Mass for the opening of the Extraordinary Synod on the Family were
'nice'. Addressing the assembled participants, mostly bishops, he said, And
to satisfy this greed, evil pastors lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of
others . . . We are all sinners and can also be tempted to 'take over' the
vineyard, because of that greed which is always present in us human beings.
God’s dream always clashes with the hypocrisy of some of his servants. We can
'thwart' God’s dream if we fail to let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Laid Table with Cheeses and Fruit (detail)
Floris Claesz van Dijk [Web Gallery of Art]
The First
Reading and the Gospel speak clearly of God's desire for all of us to be with
him, sharing in the abundance of his riches, symbolized in both readings by a
lavish banquet.
President Ramon Magsaysay of the Philippines
(died 1957) wearing a barong Tagalog
More than 30 years ago I officiated at a wedding in
Sacred Heart Church, Cebu City. The reception was held next door at a centre
attached to the church, which belongs to the Jesuits. At the reception I
noticed an elderly man wearing a barong Tagalog, which
is formal dress for men in the Philippines, especially at weddings. But it
turned out that nobody knew him. He wasn't a guest, but had invited himself
along. As there were weddings almost every day at Sacred Heart Church I figured
that maybe he invited himself along whenever the reception was held at the
adjacent centre.
But nobody minded. Filipinos are hospitable and
nobody is ever turned away. Many of us were amused and I had noticed the man at
Mass. In other words, he wasn't a freeloader but participated in the wedding
ceremony, something that many invited to weddings an baptisms don't do. They
just turn up for the meal.
The harsh words of Jesus, which I suspect many
priests won't read at Mass, jolt us out of our complacency. The man who turned
up at the banquet without bothering to dress for the occasion clearly thought
that cultural norms and good manners didn't apply to him. It's not a crime to
turn up at a wedding or some similar event dressed casually but to do so shows
a lack of respect for the celebrants and for oneself.
However, in the parable, Jesus isn't telling us to
be 'nice' and well-mannered. He's telling us forcefully that in order to share
in the 'dream' that he and our heavenly Father have for us we have to do the
Father's will. Pope Francis referred to this in the closing words of his
homily: My Synod brothers, to do a good
job of nurturing and tending the vineyard, our hearts and our minds must be
kept in Jesus Christ by 'the peace of God which passes all understanding'
(Phil 4:7). In this way our thoughts and plans will correspond to God’s
dream: to form a holy people who are his own and produce the fruits of the
kingdom of God (cf. Mt 21:43).
We have to make choices. We often
choose to sin. God is merciful, bending down to welcome us back, to acknowledge
our sins and to ask for and receive his forgiveness. Jesus has given the Church
the wonderful Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession/Penance, precisely so that
he can meet us in our sinfulness, forgive and heal us. And the Church teaches
us clearly that when we have committed a grave sin we must avail of that
sacrament. By the same token, he wants us priests to be available for penitents
and to go to confession regularly ourselves.
When God gave us the gift of
freedom he also placed some 'swings' in our 'playground', knowing that we would
sometimes fall and 'graze our knees' or even hurt ourselves more seriously. He
didn't protect us from all possible eventualities. Had he done so he would have
made prisoners of us. He invites us to his heavenly banquet, paid for by the
sacrifice of his Son on Calvary.
In the parable the king's
servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found,
both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests. Both good
and bad had a sense of being blessed and honoured by the invitation, except for
one - we don't know if he was one of the 'good' or one of the 'bad' - with an
insolent sense of entitlement rather than a wondrous sense of being graced.
Vase with Cornflowers and Poppies, Van Gogh [Web Gallery of Art]
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