Sunday, June 12, 2005
MATTHEW 22:1-14
Today's gospel reading opens on a banquet scene. It is not an ordinary meal but a banquet. God, in the person of the king who celebrates the wedding of his son, invites everyone to his table. Maybe we are too accustomed to his biblical image and so are no longer struck by it. And yet, it is striking. In other religions, God is often seen as a king who admits people into his presence in a sort of rigid standing to attention posture, like well-trained guards at Buckingham Palace. Here, in our biblical religion, God invites to his table. And his meal is not a stingy one. It is a banquet. For our God is a generous God who gives lavishly without ever tiring.
Furthermore, this banquet is a wedding banquet. God is a lover, someone madly in love with his people. In the Old Testament we see God presenting himself as a suitor wishing to marry Israel. To his people God offers a covenant that is bridal in character. The prophet Isaiah, speaking to the Israelites, says: "Your Maker is your husband." In the New Testament, Jesus shows that this marriage is carried through in his person.
The whole history of the relationships between God and his people is thus a love story. God confides to his people: "I love you with an everlasting love." And what he asks of his people in return is to love. "You shall love your God with all your heart."
In the parable, the king's invitation to the wedding banquet is turned down. And not only once, but several times. Those invited have other more important and pressing things to do. Moreover, in response to such a gracious offer, the king's emissaries are even ill-treated and murdered. This is the way in which Jesus sums up the drama of Israel. Invited to a love relationship, the chosen people of God responded with indifference and murder. God continues persistently to invite us to the table of his Son. What is our response?
God invites us to his banquet in many ways, and not only through the voice of his teaching Church and his priests. He invites us through that brother who inspires us by his good example, through that unusual occurrence which sets us thinking, through that trial or that great joy which brings us to lift our eyes towards him.
There are many ways by which one can refuse oneself to God. There is the violent way of the militant atheists who throw religion into the garbage can. But there is also the polite way, which consists of reducing religion to a mere formality. One attends Mass on Sundays, does his Easter duties, and gives to charity. They think that should be enough. They say to themselves: After all, a person has to earn his living, ensure his career, make influential connections, entertain his friends, keep abreast of things, bring up his children, relax a little. In short, he has other priorities.
A lot of people, and perhaps we are of this number, believe that happiness can very well be found not so much at the banquet of God, as elsewhere. They imagine that, by giving God the minimum time, they will have the maximum time for themselves - for the securing of their happiness. They forget that they are made for God and that apart from God, the most lavish human banquets have a taste of ashes. As St. Augustine says: "Our heart is restless, Lord, until it rests in you."
Furthermore, this banquet is a wedding banquet. God is a lover, someone madly in love with his people. In the Old Testament we see God presenting himself as a suitor wishing to marry Israel. To his people God offers a covenant that is bridal in character. The prophet Isaiah, speaking to the Israelites, says: "Your Maker is your husband." In the New Testament, Jesus shows that this marriage is carried through in his person.
The whole history of the relationships between God and his people is thus a love story. God confides to his people: "I love you with an everlasting love." And what he asks of his people in return is to love. "You shall love your God with all your heart."
In the parable, the king's invitation to the wedding banquet is turned down. And not only once, but several times. Those invited have other more important and pressing things to do. Moreover, in response to such a gracious offer, the king's emissaries are even ill-treated and murdered. This is the way in which Jesus sums up the drama of Israel. Invited to a love relationship, the chosen people of God responded with indifference and murder. God continues persistently to invite us to the table of his Son. What is our response?
God invites us to his banquet in many ways, and not only through the voice of his teaching Church and his priests. He invites us through that brother who inspires us by his good example, through that unusual occurrence which sets us thinking, through that trial or that great joy which brings us to lift our eyes towards him.
There are many ways by which one can refuse oneself to God. There is the violent way of the militant atheists who throw religion into the garbage can. But there is also the polite way, which consists of reducing religion to a mere formality. One attends Mass on Sundays, does his Easter duties, and gives to charity. They think that should be enough. They say to themselves: After all, a person has to earn his living, ensure his career, make influential connections, entertain his friends, keep abreast of things, bring up his children, relax a little. In short, he has other priorities.
A lot of people, and perhaps we are of this number, believe that happiness can very well be found not so much at the banquet of God, as elsewhere. They imagine that, by giving God the minimum time, they will have the maximum time for themselves - for the securing of their happiness. They forget that they are made for God and that apart from God, the most lavish human banquets have a taste of ashes. As St. Augustine says: "Our heart is restless, Lord, until it rests in you."
# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 5:08 PM 
