28th Sunday 2020
Isaiah 25:6-10; Philippians 4: 12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14
Are you any good at jigsaw puzzles? I have to confess that I don’t have the patience. However, we have something of a jigsaw presented by our readings today. Let’s see if we can put the pieces together.
The prophet Isaiah speaks of the Messianic banquet, the feast to be enjoyed in the Kingdom of Heaven by God’s people gathered around the Messiah, the Christ. He talks of a banquet of rich foods, of fine wines. If I get there, I am going to ask for an alternative of real ale, which strikes me as more heavenly than wine. If St. Bridget of Ireland is around, I should be fine, as she allegedly envisaged heaven as a lake of beer—an extremely sensible saint.
Whenever we celebrate Mass we are already sharing in the Messianic banquet, at least in embryo. We are called by the Messiah to His table and are given the most sumptuous food of all, His very self, hidden under the forms of bread and wine.
There is more, though: another piece of the jigsaw to be slotted in. Immediately before communion, before we share in the foretaste of the Messianic banquet, the priest proclaims “Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb”.
What does that mean? “That’s easy,” I hear you cry. “It means that we are about to receive Jesus, who gave Himself to us as food and drink at the Last Supper, AND we are about to take part in the Messianic banquet.”
That is true, but there is even more to it than that. We find the next piece of the jigsaw outside today’s readings in the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse or Book of Revelation. There St. John, assuming him to be the author, is told by an angel to write “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”. (Rev 19:9)
So we are being called, invited, to something which is the fulfilment of the Last Supper and of the Messianic banquet. We are being summoned to the completion of all that is holy, when the glorified Christ, the Lamb of God, is united completely to His bride, the Church. This is far too deep, far too complex, for our limited minds to grasp fully, but it does mean that, in receiving the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion, we are entering into heaven itself, into total union with the Lamb of God. That union will become permanent in eternity, but our earthly communion is a genuine sharing in it, which underlines the tragedy of so many people’s having been deprived, by the pandemic, of that which fulfils us.
All of which brings us to what may be the final piece of our jigsaw, as Our Lord, in the Gospel, tells us the parable of the wedding banquet of the King’s Son. This, He says, is an allegory of the Kingdom of Heaven: we are indeed being invited to that banquet, of which our communion is a foretaste.
As last week, with the parable of the tenants of the vineyard, we have the originally chosen people proving unworthy, with the result that the invitation is now extended to outsiders, to the Gentiles. We are now among those who are invited to that heavenly banquet, in all its stages, in all its manifestations.
That is wonderful news, but it comes with a warning in that postscript of the new guest who is thrown out because he isn’t wearing a wedding garment. Who is he? He is a Gentile, a member of the Church, indeed, who can’t be bothered. He doesn’t appreciate the invitation. He hasn’t taken the trouble to make himself presentable. He represents the person who makes no attempt to live as God would want, who sees the Kingdom as an entitlement rather than as a gift, who fails to respond at any deep level to God’s call. God forbid that you or I should be that person.
Have we completed our jigsaw? Not quite. We will fit the last piece into place only when we make all this a reality, receiving Holy Communion with deep fervour and faith, and responding to God’s invitation in every moment.
