Today’s readings: Isaiah 25, 6-10; Phil. 4, 12-14. 19-20; Matt. 22, 1-14.
The gospel parable from Matthew today sounds so fresh because it highlights a situation that to some extent characterises the times we are living also now. It speaks of people who are invited to God’s house but who are not interested, and others who are interested but do not feel invited.
It is not an easy parable to interpret. On the one hand, the Lord is open-handed and literally gathers everyone, even those marginalised by the religious institutions and society alike. On the other hand, there is the insistence on the wedding garment that, whoever you are and wherever you come from, you need to put on.
Most probably, we take this to mean that there are rules to be respected. But the wedding garment stands mostly for faith, and here the point made is that where faith is concerned, God’s invitation is gratuitous but demanding. Once you turn seriously to the Lord there is no turning back, there is no space for compromise.
The banquet, like the vineyard last Sunday, is a most important and significant biblical icon. In Isaiah it is revealing of God’s generosity and of His universality. In Matthew, this universality is represented in the person of Jesus who is at loggerheads with the chief priests and the Pharisees for his new and merciful approach to the poor and especially the sinners.
The universalistic perspective in Isaiah and Matthew should help us to put things more in perspective. The Church’s mission is first and foremost to envisage itself as a sign and instrument of God’s unfailing love for His people. So what comes first, before the Church, is that love which should be always in focus.
It is this love that people are invited to experience in the first place. It is this love that heals, that saves, that makes people connect first and foremost with their inner self. The banquet of rich food in Isaiah and the wedding feast in Matthew are messianic symbols which with time were interpreted as religious ones narrowing down the biblical perspective and putting the Church, rather than God’s kingdom, as the focus.
This is the revision we are called to make today. As long as the Church persists in surviving as an institution, it will continue to perceive its mission as basically to stick to its doctrines, even at the cost of people’s hopes and aspirations. If the Church embarks instead on truly being there to accompany people, then we will see things differently.
Isaiah’s words are eye-opening. We are sent to take away the people’s shame and to wipe away their tears. That entails undoubtedly on the part of the Church a change of strategy and attitude. It is most appropriate that these Scriptures come at a time when we are half way through a most crucial moment for the Church with the ongoing synod of bishops in Rome.
Many in the Church, from top to bottom, still see things in terms of black on white, in terms of either, or. But life for so many is not that simple, and choices are not that clear-cut. We cannot afford to keep narrowing down the symbolism of the wedding feast to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist to a rite, and God’s universal love as conditioned by our legalistic frame of mind.
All this puts a grave responsibility on the Church and on each and everyone of us who claim to believe in God. Matthew’s gospel was composed in the late first century and this parable may be referring to the tragic events of the destruction of Jerusalem. Matthew, through this parable, is also holding the spiritual leaders at the time as the ones responsible for Jerusalem’s fall.
For how long are we going to stick to our past, reluctant to let go and explore the varied ways and means through which God in time makes Himself present to people mostly in their hearts and in the intimacy of their consciences? For how long are we going to persist on burdening people with shame instead of taking it away from them? As Church, we are called to mediate God’s love. But, in the name of God Himself, we can easily instead, end up obstructing it.