Weekly thoughts on the Sunday Gospel, readings or a topic...

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seeing your life through the lens of the gospels  
– Matthew 22:1-14
There are two parables here that Matthew has joined together. Looking at the first one:
1. Scripture often speaks of the kingdom of God as a banquet. The image of people being at a meal where everyone is happy and welcome and where all hunger and thirst is satisfied gets across the idea that God loves, accepts and welcomes us and wants us to make that experience available to one another. Think of times in your life when you have had ‘banquet’ experiences and when you have felt accepted and loved?
2. The host enlists the help of his servants to invite people to the banquet. We are commissioned by the Lord to invite people to the banquet of the kingdom, to the fullness of life – as parents, teachers, friends, etc. What has it been like for you to play a part in leading others to a fuller life?
3. As in the parable last week, there is a message about being alert to invitations that offer a fuller life and the danger of losing out if we neglect to respond to such invitations. Perhaps there have been opportunities offered to you that you missed, and now regret. Think also of the blessings you received because you seized the moment and took an opportunity that presented itself.
4. The second parable puts the focus on how we respond to invitations. Some invitations are ones that challenge us to change, to conversion, to put on a ‘wedding garment’. What has been your experience of changing in response to an invitation you received?  – John Byrne, OSA

The Deep End
Today’s gospel is difficult. Stories of judgement, weeping and gnashing of teeth just do not appeal to most people. We hear about a King whose invitations to his son’s wedding banquet are repeatedly refused. In some instances, his messengers are killed. One interpretation of this parable is that it is an allegory for the Jesus story, God’s invitation to the Messianic banquet has been refused by those who are expected to embrace it. This banquet is therefore opened up to the unexpected, the Gentiles, the poor, those on the margins, the outcast.
Going deeper again, we can hear that God wants to be in a relationship with each of us. We are all invited to this banquet. Yet, sometimes we exclude ourselves from being in fellowship with God. We may be hurt, suffering in a way that is preventing us from accepting the invitation to experience God’s love and hospitality. We simply want to be left alone. Notice how the host in this parable persists. God does not give up on us.
And what about that poor chap who did come but was not suitably dressed? If we accept the invitation we should be ready for change and not just change of an outer garment – real change. Because any real experience of God in our lives transforms us in some way or another. Parables were meant to shock those who heard them. The Gospel is meant to make us uncomfortable. Otherwise, what changes for us? We can sit around and listen to nice, gentle passages that keep us comforted, or we can be challenged and moved to experiencing something real, something which requires us to show up and be transformed. It is up to us whether or not we accept this invitation.  – Jane Mellett

(from Intercom)