By: Fr. Bel R. San Luis, SVD
A YOUNG couple had invited many guests to their daughter’s birthday dinner. At the table, the hostess turned to her six-year-old daughter and asked, “Would you like to say the prayer?”
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“I don’t know what to say,” the girl replied. “Just say what you hear Mama says,” the mother answered. The little girl reluctantly bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these many people for dinner?”
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The gospel of this 28th Sunday speaks about an invitation too, but the host in the parable was not regretting that so many came as the above story relates but rather nobody came. In both cases, the hosts were disappointed.
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The king, symbolizing God, had made elaborate preparations for a wedding banquet and then invited guests, but they all begged off for more “important” matters: one went to his estate, another to his business (read Mt 22,1-14). Jesus refers to the wedding banquet as God’s heavenly kingdom.
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Christ’s parable is a veiled accusation against the Jewish people of the day who had been invited by God to be his Chosen People, but they contemptuously refused. Today the parable serves as a WARNING for us Christians as the new Chosen People.
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To be fair, we have not ignored God’s invitation; otherwise we would not be baptized Christians and would not be fulfilling our Sunday obligations. But the danger for us is that we may allow the affairs of this world, our business, our pleasures to blot out our vision of the real goal in life.
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There was a couple who were so engrossed in their business of manufacturing huge volumes of clothes for export that the family suffered. Their high school daughter became an unwed mother and their son had started taking drugs.
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The business was all that mattered so that even on Sundays, they had to work. And since the couple had no more time for one another, eventually their marriage broke apart.
People can be so busy making a living that they fail to make life itself.
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Our Lord invites us to live a HOLISTIC or balanced life which takes into consideration our spiritual well-being. God invites us to His Eucharistic banquet for spiritual nourishment and time for prayer.
How often does the Lord invite us to be more helpful to some needy people, only to be ignored because of “more pressing” things to do like playing a game, shopping or spending so much precious time in amusements like the Internet, Facebook or movies.
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LIMITED INVITATION. No doubt, God is not taking away our time for work, recreation, and worldly pursuits. What He is asking is that we should not forget or neglect our spiritual needs and need for God.
REMEMBER: there’s a LIMIT to His invitation because we live but once in this world. After that there’s the King’s reckoning.
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SIGNS – On a Church’s billboard: “7 days without God makes one weak.”
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In the front yard of a Funeral Parlor: “Drive carefully. We can wait.”
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Sign on the back of a Septic Tank Truck: “Caution! This truck is full of political promises”
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