Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 15, 2023 - 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Isa 25:6-10a; Phil 4:12-14, 19-20; Matt 22:1-14 or 22:1-10]On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food andpure, choice wines.....The Lord God will wipe the tears from every face..[Isaiah] "The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son....." [Matthew]
The parable of the wedding feast is, like the one of the vineyard last Sunday, addressed to the leadership of the Jewish community in Jesus' time during Jesus' last days in Jerusalem before his death and resurrection. The wedding feast would have recalled the image from Isaiah in today's first scripture. The basic question is one of an invitation that is to be accepted or rejected. In the Gospel According to Matthew, the invitation to the Kingdom of heaven was extended first to the Jews and rejected by them, and especially, by their leaders, sometimes in a violent manner, as occurred in the parable of the vineyard. The invitation is then extended to anyone the King's servants could persuade to come. The remainder of the parable concerns accepting the invitation unworthily (and may be omitted in some places.)
As I write this, there is an event happening in Rome called the "synod on synodality." Representatives from all around the world are participating. Although the synod is not a decision-making body, it will be discussing a wide range of issues from around the Catholic world. The media tend to focus on "hot button" issues such as ordination of women, the status of divorced/remarried persons, the status of LGBTQ people in the church, etc. etc, But the more important fact is that the synod is taking place at all!! Although synods have been part of Catholic history, especially in the churches of the East, we Latin rite folks are not used to them.
At issue is the wedding feast and who may be invited and on what terms. Pope Francis has spoken of the church as a "field hospital for the sick and wounded?" That's not exactly a wedding feast! Others see the church as a fortress against a hostile world, a kind of spiritual Alamo! A wedding feast is supposed to be a time of rejoicing. The rejection of the King's invitation is a sad commentary. The broader invitation to the "highways and byways" brings challenges of its own. The one who comes without a wedding garment will not be admitted. The synod must discern the nature of the invitation and the responsibility of its acceptance. All of us can pray that this first session (there will be a second session in October 2024) will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, bear fruit in our understanding of what it means to receive the invitation and accept it, and what IS an acceptable wedding garment. AMEN