Many are called but few are chosen. Where are you? 28 Sunday ordinary time -Year A Gospel reading: Matthew 22:1-14 This passage and last Sunday’s have much in common. They are both parables, each with its own dominant image –the vineyard last Sunday, the wedding feast today. Both belong to the last stage of Jesus’ public ministry and remembering this could be helpful for our meditation. Jesus is in Jerusalem and the atmosphere is tense. The “chief priests and elders of the people” continue refusing to accept Jesus’ call to conversion; they will soon decide to hand him over to the Romans A decision which leads to their own destruction. Jesus for his part does not give up. He continues to call them to repentance, although his teaching reflects his frustration at their blindness and hardness of heart. We can identify similar crisis moments in our lives, times when, like the chief priests and elders, we refused to read the danger signs looking back now, we recognise that we were on the road to ruin, in our spiritual lives, in family or community life, in personal relationships; times when, like Jesus, we had to continue calling people to repentance even though we were deeply frustrated at their blindness. The passage is in three sections: -Verses 1 to 10 –first part of the parable: the invitation to the wedding feast -Verses 11 to 13 –second part of the parable: the wedding garment -Verse 14 –the concluding statement. As always we are free to take the sections separately or see them as a journey which we make. Section 1 The image of the parable is of “a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding”. This is a special kind of feast therefore, one which celebrates the establishment of harmony. The parable therefore evokes a moment when a community (or an individual) is “invited” to make an end of “separateness” and a beginning of “oneness” Within ourselves, in the world and in individual communities. We think of groups being summoned to live together in harmony Within families -in individual countries, e.g. Northern Ireland, Cameroon Francophones and Anglophones, the Basque country, Sri Lanka Between neighbouring countries, e.g. India and Pakistan, Palestine and Israel The different Christian Churches -religions invited to collaborate with each other. Within ourselves too, a time comes when we must resolve some inner conflict, -between soul and body -an ideal and the reality we have to live. Choosing between conflicting relationships. Very often, as we know from experience, people prefer to remain divided. They are caught up in their own affairs (some to a “farm” and others to a “business”) and reject those who “invite them to the wedding”. Their rejection takes different forms: -at first they merely react angrily; -then they maltreat the messengers, e.g. imprison them as the apartheid regime did to Mandela; -they go further and put them to death, e.g. Gandhi and Martin Luther King. We recognise that it is a moment of truth –as it was in the life of Jesus (see above). If the invited guests continue to reject God’s invitation, they will themselves be “destroyed” and their “towns will be burnt”. This is what happened with nationalism in Europe between the World Wars, with British rule in India and with the apartheid regime. Our meditation can focus on the “guests” who eventually come in. They are ourselves when we experience a moment of grace in the form of a “wedding”, -a family is reunited after long years of squabbling -an addict is finally converted like Yambebe and I -a Church community finds new life through ecumenism or inter-religious collaboration -warring groups finally make peace. Surprise is essential to these as to all experiences of grace (cf C.S. Lewis “Surprised by Joy”). Spontaneously we exclaim, “Imagine me being invited to this wedding feast!” Section 2. This second part of the parable has two characters. The king represents us when we insist that community (or personal) renewal must bear appropriate fruit. He is indignant at the guest’s attitude and rightly so. As with last week’s passage, what we see is an example of “righteous anger”. We think of national leaders deeply frustrated as they see their newly liberated countries fall into corruption, communal violence, or class warfare. The guest is insensitive and uncouth; he has no respect for the occasion or his fellow guests. His basic problem is that he does not feel awe at the privilege conferred on him. Identify with the terrible moment when his arrogance finally catches up with him and he who was to be part of a royal occasion is unceremoniously “thrown out into the dark”, where there is “weeping and grinding of teeth”. Section 3 is a fitting conclusion to the parable. It is a typically enigmatic saying of Jesus which can remain abstract but comes alive if read imaginatively. The saying reminds us of two stages in renewal. There is a moment of “being called”. We are happy to find ourselves members of a renewed group, -the post-Vatican II Church with its renewed liturgy, its involvement in the modern world, its active laity; -a religious community which took the path of true poverty and identifying with the poor; -a racially integrated society. A further stage arises when members become complacent and take their blessings for granted. They suddenly realise that they are “not chosen” –they prove unworthy of their “calling”. REV. FRIAR CHARLES LWANGA MARIA PIO MATUTE OF THE CROSS AND THE PRECIOUSE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST FI . ANTONIANUM PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY ROME ITALY.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 00:30:26 +0000
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