Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” Isaiah 25:6

“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast ….” Mt. 22: 1

“Go out … into the main roads and invite into the feast whomever you find.” Mt. 22:9

When I was a kid growing up, family meals were a central feature of our lives – for better or for worse. I have lots of memories about those meals, but one in particular stands out.

It was summer. It was hot. Back in the day, there was no air conditioning. So all of our windows were open, as were those in the house right next door to us – the rectory where our parish priests lived!

As I remember it, all 10 of us kids were gathered around the table, along with Mom and Dad. All the priests were gathered around theirs. A very short distance stood between our two homes.

Then, a problem came up: Dad, commonly called “Pete” by his friends, couldn’t find the ketchup. He was not amused.

In a loud voice, Dad began searching for the illusory ketchup. His animated search included slamming doors and banging drawers.

It finally came to an end, when, suddenly, we heard a familiar voice from across  the way. It had the unmistakable sound of the pastor of our parish. “Hey, Pete,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of ketchup over here. Send over one of the kids and we’ll give you some.”

Dead silence reigned supreme in our house for some time after that.

Dining in the Kingdom of God

This is the title of a book by a scripture scholar who points out that a family meal is the most frequent and prominent occasion for Jesus’ teaching and healing. In the gospel of Luke alone, there are some ten meals at which Jesus presented his view of a God that surpassed anything known before.

As un-sacred as some family meals can be, nevertheless the family meal  is the most common image of the gift, the surprise that Jesus is offering to every one of us when he gathers all people together in the reality of what we have come to call “heaven.”

That experience, he tells us, will be like a banquet, a feast, an enormous dinner party. It’s as if God wants to see all his people sitting around a table with him, enjoying abundant life forever.

In short, open table fellowship becomes Jesus’ most common visual aid, his power-point.

And he chooses a common meal because it has all the right ingredients: community, equality, joy, nurturance, delight – and a generous host. What a perfect metaphor for eternity and salvation!

Today’s parable of the banquet, then, is an eloquent reminder of THE central theme of the entire Bible:

Divine Unmerited Generosity, or what we more commonly call “grace.”

The New Baltimore Catechism defines “grace” as “that which confers on our souls a new life, that is, a sharing in the life of God Himself.”

Abundance, excess, “full measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over and pouring into your lap,” as the gospel of Luke expresses it – this is the “grace,” the gift that God offers to us. It is the key and the code to understanding everything that is transformative in sacred scripture.

But, wait, there’s more:

The invitation is addressed to everyone! Not just to the “nice” people. Not just to the “good” people. Everyone is invited. Or, as today’s gospel puts it: “Go out into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find … bad and good alike.”

God does not exclude. He invites.

And today’s gospel makes it especially clear that God is willing only to invite. He refuses to command. He refuses to pressure or force anyone.

This is where we arrive on the scene, if you will. The invitation has been sent. We’re on the list.

Will we come to the banquet?

It’s a real and challenging question because for some people religion is all about reward and punishment, shame and guilt, rules and regulations. The great themes of grace and liberation, of the opportunity for divine union, of the possibility of knowing God’s infinite embrace of mercy-beyond-measure have often been suppressed beyond recognition.

It’s also a real question because too many times people have feared the invitation, or seen it as simply fanciful, or too good to be true, or have had it presented as “duty” rather than delight.

And then there is another question:

How can the Grace that is our God, and the Mercy that emanates from our God become more visible in the world of today? How can Grace and Mercy reach into the lives of families throughout the world and re-invigorate them, re-new them, re-make them into images of the God who dined with sinners, ate with Pharisees, and drank with the poor and the undesirable and the outcasts?

Meals, as common and undisciplined as they can often be – even ones where the ketchup cannot be found! – are still the best image of the kind of relationship we can have with the God of Jesus.

That’s why Jesus chose meals as THE unsurpassed human sign to tell us about the “grace” of divine union that God has planned for all of us – a Grace and a Generosity as sumptuous as “rich foods and choice wines.”

If only we’ll accept the invitation.

Ted Wolgamot, Psy.D.

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10/12/2017