‘Go . . . and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Sunday Reflections, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

The Inspiration of St Matthew, Caravaggio, 1602

Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome [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)

Gospel Matthew 22:1-14 [or 22:1-10] (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition: Canada) 

Jesus said to the chief priest and the elders of the people:

“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, mistreated 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.”]

Antiphona ad introitum     Entrance Antiphon  Ps 129 [130]:3-4

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?

Quia apud te propitiatio est, Deus Israel.

De profundis clamavi ad te Domine: Domine exaudi vocem meam.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto; sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper. Amen.

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?

Quia apud te propitiatio est, Deus Israel.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning, is now and will be for ever. Amen.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel.

[The longer form is used when Mass is celebrated in the Extraordinary Form, using the 1962 Missal.]

A swing made from tyres in East Timor [Wikipedia]

A friend of mine who has three young daughters and a fourth child on the way and who now lives in California posted on her Facebook the other day 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 last Sunday 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. 

Still-life, Floris Claesz van Dijck, 1610
Private collection [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 (died 1957) of the Philippines wearing a barong Tagalog [Wikipedia]

Nearly 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.

The Two Trinities, Murillo, 1675-82

National Gallery, London [Web Gallery of Art]

Prayer of Pope Francis for the Synod on the Family

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love,
to you we turn with trust. 

Holy Family of Nazareth,
grant that our families too
may be places of communion and prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic Churches.

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may families never again
experience violence, rejection and division:
may all who have been hurt or scandalized
find ready comfort and healing. 

Holy Family of Nazareth,
may the approaching Synod of Bishops
make us once more mindful
of the sacredness and inviolability of the family,
and its beauty in God's plan. 

Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
graciously hear our prayer.

My parents were married 70 years ago today

On Saturday 6 July 1942 John Coyle, a carpenter, married Mary Collins, a seamstress, in St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin, (photo below) the first Catholic church to be built in Dublin after the Act of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 that abolished most of the anti-Catholic Penal Laws in the United Kingdom, of which the whole of Ireland was then apart. The occasion was to have some impact on my life as I was the first-born of their union, arriving in the world nine months and two weeks later. The wedding photo above was taken in a studio in Dublin after their honeymoon. So it is likely that I was present on the occasion!

Other couples who had their weddings in St Pauls, now sadly closed, were Captain Charles Boycott, who gave a word to the English language, and Anne Dunne, in 1852, and Éamon de Valera, who played such a major part in Irish history in the last century,  and Sinéad Flanagan in 1910.

St Paul's Church, Arran Quay, Dublin [Wikipedia]

Because of the 'Emergency', as the Second World War was known in what is now the Republic of Ireland - we were neutral in the war - travel was restricted and most things were rationed. The wedding took place at 7am and the breakfast, as wedding receptions were called in those days because there were no afternoon or evening Masses and there was a strict fast from midnight for those who wished to receive Holy Communion, was held in the nearby Four Courts Hotel. It no longer exits. 

But there was also another reason for the early ceremony. My parents were to travel to Arklow, a coastal town in County Wicklow, south of Dublin, by train. They went first class, though my mother often spoke of their return journey a fortnight later when they couldn't find a seat because of the number of schoolgirls on an outing.

Avoca Estuary and Nineteen Arches Bridge, Arklow

Both my parents loved to dance and Dad was one of those who in their spare time built the dance-floor in the hall of the Catholic Young Men's Society in Aughrim Street, where my Mam also appeared in a number of amateur stage productions. She was a very good singer. She'd often tell a story about my Uncle Joe Kiernan, who married one of her younger sisters, my Auntie Nan, at a dance in the hall when Irving Berlin's Always was being played. It seems my Uncle Joe wasn't 'unhappy' and sang the word 'always' with a big grin on his face each time it came around. My Mam would always laugh as she recalled this.

My parents, left, Auntie Nan and Uncle Joe on an outing to Powerscourt, County Wicklow, maybe around 1940 before either couple were married. They've all gone to their reward, Uncle Joe being the last. I celebrated his funeral Mass in 2000.

Irving Berlin was a master at putting simple melodies and simple words together in a way that spoke to people.

I'll be loving you, always,
With a love that's true, always.
When the things you plan need a helping hand
I will understand, always, always.
Days may not be fair, always.
That's when I'll be there, always.
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year but always.

I was growing up when rock 'n' roll arrived in the mid-1950s. When I'd see my parents dancing I'd envy them because they danced so well and so gracefully, though they weren't quite as good as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers whose movies they would have seen in the 1930s. When my mother was only 12 she won a prize for doing the Charleston - and was afraid her father would find out!

The late Fr Vincent San Juan SJ, a Filipino who spent most of his life as a priest in the family life ministry, used to compare the relationship of husband and wife with a couple doing ballroom dancing. Sometimes the man led, sometimes the woman. There may be times too when they're not in step with one another or may even step on one another's toes. But when there is love they're soon back into the proper rhythm.

One evening when I was already ordained I was washing the dishes at home with my mother and asked her how she had come to marry my father. One aspect of the story still makes me smile. My Dad was a very honourable person. His best friend, who was also his best man at his wedding, was Matt McKenna. Matt was only 43 when he died. He and my father used to go on summer holidays together. My father judged that he was spending too much time with Matt and was neglecting his girlfriend - so he dropped the latter! Some time later she was given two tickets for a formal dance and asked her mother, later to be my Granny Collins, what she should do. 'Invite Joe', was her mother's response. 'Joe' was the nickname she knew  my father by. So she did and they would have been dressed like Fred and Ginger in the video above for the occasion when they reestablished their relationship.

I'm grateful to God for the advice Granny Collins gave to her daughter, for the dancing that led my parents to the altar, for their giving life to me and to my brother Paddy and for the fact that I never had any doubts about the commitment they made to each other on 6 July 1942, a commitment that Irving Berlin captures in his song.

My mother died in her sleep on 29 April 1970. She had given my father a new suit as a Silver Wedding Anniversary gift in 1967. He was always slow to use something new. He wore the suit for the first time at my mother's funeral. He died suddenly on 11 August 1987. May they and their parents, Nicholas and Jane Coyle, William Patrick and Annie Collins, rest in peace.