WORD FOR MISSION

Missionary reflection  on Sunday Liturgy



ALL ARE INVITED
to the Banquet of life

 

28th Sunday of O. T.

Year “A” – Sunday 10.9.2005

 

 

Isaiah 25,6-10

From Psalm 22

Philippians 4,12-14.19.20

Matthew 22,1-14

 

Reflections

From the Lord’s vineyard to the banquet of the peoples: after three Sundays with the vineyard as a theme, today the message of the Scripture readings centers on the banquet of life to which God invites all the peoples. This project of the Father is appears clearly already in the First Testament, from creation, when God prepares a garden for his sons and daughters. The prophet Isaiah (1st reading), using an apocalyptic language projected into the future, speaks of a banquet of fat foods and excellent wines, for all peoples (v. 6).Humiliations, death, tears, slavery will belong to the past! Is it only a dream, an illusion? No! It is the plan of the Father of life, for all peoples (V. 7), that is gradually taking shape on the journey  to the final Kingdom. It is therefore fitting to rejoice and exult because of the salvation that comes from God (v. 9). Even in the midst of life’s tribulations , He, the good Shepherd, provides everything: he provides food and water, he prepares an abundant banquet for all (Responsorial Psalm)

 

The banquet is a very familiar reality in the actions and the teachings of Jesus: his “signs” begin at the wedding feast of Cana; then we have the dinners offered by Matthew and Zaccheus, by Simon the leper and by his friend Lazarus, the multiplication of the loaves, the last supper, the table of Emmaus, the breakfast at the lakeshore; then we add the teachings of Jesus on the places at table, the vigil of the virgins wanting to enter into the wedding feast, and others such as today’s parable of the wedding banquet for the king’s son (Gospel).

 

The setting of the banquet (the image and the reality) reveals the project of the Father for the life of the world. His invitation is not limited only to working in the vineyard (see the parables of the previous Sundays), but to join with joy the wedding banquet of the Son: namely, to become sons through the Son, brothers and sisters of all, through baptism; to share in the banquet of the Eucharist; to play an active role in the project of the Kingdom and carry its good news to others (missionary sharing). All this, even before being a duty, is a source of dignity, a feast. To be Christians and missionaries of the Gospel is much more than a rule: it is a reason for joy and for hope, a service to the Kingdom. The joy of being Christians and of sharing it with others is one of the more frequent themes in the allocutions of  Pope Benedict 16th. And not just for young people.

 

This saving plan o God is for all peoples, his Kingdom has universal dimensions, without limits, as we can tell from the parable: the Father invites everybody, wants a house filled with his sons and daughters, gathered from all parts of the world (v. 9). He resents the refusal of the first invited guests, but does not give up. “The plan of God is not suspended, on the contrary it picks up intensity in view of the unusual individuals whom a Hebrew would most certainly not want to invite to  his purified and ritually perfect table. It’s wholly a world of poor and suffering people, ostracized people scattered on the world’s roads. The proud self-sufficiency of those who felt they had the monopoly of election and salvation… is supplanted by the new community of the Beatitudes” (G. Ravasi).

 

To belong to this community we need the wedding garment (v. 12), namely we need to give up the habits of the old creation, to have a new spirit and put on the new creation (Eph 4,22-24), as St. Paul puts it, who adapted himself to everything (2nd reading), “being well fed and to go hungry”; he trusts only in God: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (v.12-13). “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” exhorts again Paul (Rom 13,14). And St. Gregory the Great comments: “Charity is the wedding garment, because our Redeemer was wearing it when he came to unite his Church to himself as bride. It is the love of God that prompts the only begotten Son to unite the elects to himself. “ Here we have a message that highlights the commitment of each Christian and of each community during this missionary month of October. Be it to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus, be it to help the other invited guest at the banquet of life.*

 

The Pope’s word

* “Your task is to ensure that there be in abundance sufficient quantity of bread for the table of humankind, rather than favor an artificial control of births, which would be irrational, in view  of lowering the number of those who are seated at the banquet of life.”

Paul VI

Speech at the UN,  New York, 10.4.1965

 

In the footsteps of missionaries

- 10/9: St. Giovanni Leonardi (1541-1609), Founder of the Cleric Regulars of the Mother of God; together with the Spanish  prelate G. B. Vives, he founded in Rome a school for future missionaries ad gentes, a precursor of the College of the Propagation of the Faith.

- 10/9: St. Ludovico Bertrán (1526-1581), a Spanish Dominican priest, missionary in Colombia, where he evangelized the indigenous people and defended them against their oppressors.

- 10/10: St. Daniel Comboni (1831-1881), first bishop vicar apostolic of Central Africa; he worked out a Plan for the regeneration of Africa through the Africans and founded missionary institutes. He died in Khartoum (Sudan).

- 10/11: Blessed John 23rd (Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881-1963), the “good pope,” who called (1959) and opened Vatican Council II on October 11, 1962.

- 10/12: Memory of 4966 martyrs and confessors (+483) during a persecution of the Vandals of  the Arian Unmeric king in North Africa .

- 10/15: St. Teresa of Jesus (of Avila, 1515-1582), reformer of the Carmel and founder of new monasteries, doctor of the Church because of her deep experience of the mystery of God.

 

 

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Editor: Fr. Romeo Ballan, mccj – Former Director of CIAM, Rome

Website: www.ciam.org  http://www.ciam.org/   “Word for Mission”

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