Waiting for an invitation? Get to the Main Roads!

Reflection for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10a, Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20, Matthew 22:1-14)

This Sunday's first reading and Gospel present the image of a benevolent Father who invites us to a sumptuous banquet/ wedding feast. “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”, proclaims Isaiah in the first reading. And the Gospel reads, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son”. Sharing a meal, in the biblical perspective, is an invitation to a mutual relationship. In comparing the Kingdom of God to a wedding feast, Jesus reveals that God’s kingdom is not a paradise after death, but an invitation to God’s presence that is offered here and now, a presence that is characterised by joy, festivity, and life.

The parable presents two different sets of responses to this invitation. Firstly, there are guests who have been invited. These invitees can be grouped into three sets depending on their different kinds of refusal of the invitation:

1. The indifferent:

The first set of invitees offers no excuses: “He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. It seems like they don’t even care to make up some convincing lie. They simply “refuse to come”. The silence in their indifference is indeed deafening. Does this silence also not echo our many lack of proper response to God’s invitations? Reflecting on Jesus’ cry on the cross ‘I thirst’ (John 19:28), Pope Francis, During the 2016 World Day of Prayer for Peace at Assisi said that the cry of little ones of God’s Kingdom, the wounded and parched members of Christ’s body, “encounter the deafening silence of indifference, the selfishness of those annoyed at being pestered, the coldness of those who silence their cry for help with the same ease with which television channels are changed”.

2. The idolators:

The second type of refusal is more explicit and professional: “One went to his farm, the other to his business”. God’s invitation to the feast and his offer of friendship get lost in the busy schedules of our lives. The question of work-life balance is becoming a cross-cultural phenomenon that has a huge impact not just on our productivity but also on our spiritual, physical, mental, and social health. While commitment to work is indeed laudable and praise-worthy, giving in to a certain idolatry in our approach to our career, money, and opportunities can adversely affect our integral well-being. Idols need not always be statues. Everything that we prioritize above God can push us into idol worship. Do I prioritize the spiritual health of my family as much as I value its financial security? Do we focus enough on the integral formation of the children and the youth of our families?

3. The indignant:

The third category of refusal is extremely violent and even murderous: “The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them”. What could possibly justify the violent treatment of the King’s emissaries? Maybe this is the beginning of a revolution against the King’s authority or maybe it is a sign of their will to cut their ties with the king. In any case, what is clear is that those the King considered his partners have now turned rebellious, choosing violence over his invitation to take their place at the table with him. The refusal of the third group is reminiscent of our own blatant and at times violent rejections of God’s offer of friendship. Jesus says, "Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelations 3:20). God responds to our violence with his patience. Am I willing to open the door of my heart to God's offer?

To the indifferent, the idolators, and the indignant, it is difficult to receive God’s gratuitous offer of friendship. They have grown so full of themselves that they have become indifferent to their own innate desire for the transcendent. Their idolatries have imprisoned them so much that even God cannot find a place in their busy schedules. Their false sense of independence and autonomy has ostracised them in their self-made castles of self-reflecting mirrors. So when the invited guests refuse to respond to the invitation of the King, the focus of the parable turns to the second set of invitees: “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find”. The only criterion now is that the new invitees should be from the main “roads”, walking the synodal path (for synodality means journeying together) at the crossroads of our cities and marketplaces. Those on their ‘roads’, dynamically and radically open to the newness of God are now ‘invited’ to experience the joy of God’s friendship.

The parable adds another important detail: God’s offer is free but not cheap! The king notices a man not dressed in a wedding garment that was offered to each guest on arrival. It is not the lack of the garment, per se, that the man is thrown out of the party. For the king still addresses him as “my friend” and asks him, “How is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” “But he was reduced to silence”. It is the “unholy” silence that infuriates the king. Faith is not just blind obedience or just about saying ‘yes’ to God. It is a personal and proactive response that is lived in a committed relationship that changes us from the path of indifference, idolatry, and indignation to the main roads of our common synodal journey.