28th Sunday 2023
Isaiah 25: 6-10; Psalm 22 (23); Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20;
Matthew 22: 1-14
If vines and vineyards formed the link joining last Sunday’s readings, today it is fairly clear that the linking word is “banquet”. Even the Second Reading, which has no particular link to the others, has a tenuous connection as Paul speaks of being ready for “full stomach or empty stomach”. From that reading, I would commend another sentence to your attention: “There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength”.
Why is that sentence so important? It reminds us that God is with us in every situation, no matter how hopeless it may appear. A priest who is a fellow depressive quoted it to me as something which helps him during bouts of depression, and I pass it on to you.
Turning to the subject of banquets, we find the prophet Isaiah describing the Messianic banquet when God’s people will sit down with the Messiah, the Christ, at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. At his banquet, on the heavenly version of Mount Sion, we shall find freedom from the distress and the death which are our inevitable lot in this life. Our HOPES will be fulfilled—we find the word “hoped” twice in the closing verses. Of the cardinal virtues—faith, hope, and charity—hope tends to be the most neglected. It is not a Micawberish optimism that “something will turn up” but a firm belief rooted in our trust in God, and in His love for us, a confidence that we can and must respond to His love, for our fulfilment to be attained. (Incidentally, I have one personal hope in relation to the Messianic banquet, that the best draught ale will be available in addition to fine wines.)
The idea of the Messianic banquet should be ringing bells for you, whether metaphorical bells or literal bells in the form of sanctuary bells. We will in a few minutes be partaking of the Messianic banquet as Jesus the Christ shares with us the feast of His Body and Blood. In human terms there will not yet be rich food and fine wines, because the glory of the Kingdom is not yet; but the Kingdom is nevertheless present and so in consequence is the Messianic banquet, though its glory is still hidden.
Today’s psalm reminds us of that heavenly banquet, as its author tells us that it has been prepared for us; before we hear of it again in Jesus’ two part parable. The context is a parable about the wedding feast of a king’s son, which Our Lord relates to the Kingdom of Heaven. This concept will later be taken up by the author of the Apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, who declares “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” as Christ, the Lamb of God, takes the Church as His bride.
We are vividly reminded of this immediately before receiving Communion, as the priest almost, but not quite, repeats those words. What is different? The word “marriage” is omitted, in order to link the Eucharist more obviously with the Last Supper, but the anticipation of the heavenly banquet is still implicit. In Holy Communion, past present and future are united as we share, as a present reality, in the Body of Christ here and now, while making present both the past, in the form of the Last Supper and the sacrifice of Calvary, and the future Messianic banquet. We can never plumb the entire depth of the Eucharistic mystery.
There are other aspects of today’s parable which we must also consider. As in last week’s parable of the murderous tenants of the vineyard, there is a reference to the failure of the Jewish people, and the extension of the Kingdom to the Gentiles. The guests who decline the wedding invitation are those Jews who reject Our Lord: the murderers among them, those who have persecuted and killed the prophets. Once again the Gentiles are brought in, this time from the highways and byways to take their place in the wedding hall of the Kingdom.
As last week, though, it is not all beer and skittles. The Gentiles who are now invited comprise “bad and good alike”. This is reminiscent of the parables of the wheat and the weeds, and of the sprats and mackerel. There will be a final sorting when the bad and harmful are rejected.
In the second part of today’s parable, that rejection involves the guest without a wedding garment. He has accepted the invitation, but has done nothing by way of behaving appropriately. Effectively, he simply can’t be bothered. We too have been invited to the banquet, as we are reminded immediately before receiving Communion. How are we responding day by day to this invitation?
