Everbody's Invited!

Memorial of Saint Pius X

First Reading: Ezekiel 36: 23-28
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14


The parable of the wedding feast. In the gospel today we are told that the Kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and when he invited all of the original guests; none of them came. They found excuses not to come, such as work or business. He had dispatched his servants to tell them that all the food is ready and all they need to do is show up. Now some of the servants were mistreated and killed; to which the king sent out troops to destroy these men and their city. So what do you do when none of the people you had originally invited to your wedding don't show up? Simple, find other guests! The king then sent out his servants to find whoever they could and it didn't matter if they were bad or good, they were all invited!

This parable should speak loudly to all of us. We are all invited into God's kingdom, he has prepared a place for all of us. Good or bad, it doesn't matter; come one and come all! Now this is not to say that we are to just come as we are. As we see from the person who came to the wedding without a wedding garment on, he was binded and cast into the darkness. Although invited to the feast, he was not willing to "change." Now in the parable they speak of this as a physical change of clothes, but we should all understand it to mean an inward change of heart, mind, and soul.

The book of Colossians discusses this "change" that we should all go through. When we are called, St. Paul tells us that we are to: "put to death then, the parts of you that are earthly; immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry...but now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to each one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator." (Col 3:5-10)

What an awesome God we serve, our God who does not care where we have been, as long as we are willing to surrender to Him and "put on our new self." We are all invited to the feast, let us make sure that we are continuously working to be "wearing the right garments."

Father above, we thank you and give you praise for this day. Let us do everything in word or in deed for you our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant us the courage and strength to shake off the old and put on the new. We ask this all through Christ our Lord. Amen.