October 10, 2023 at 2:31 p.m.
We have all been invited to the wedding feast!
In the ancient Hebrew culture, sharing a meal was a sacred event for hospitality and a sign of a covenant of peace and fidelity. Throughout the Hebrew scripture, there are numerous examples of covenants being sealed with a feast or sacred meal.
Beginning with the apparition at Mamre when Abraham welcomed the three visitors (angels) and offered them hospitality and refreshment, the visitors blessed Abraham and Sarah for their hospitality and told Abraham, “I shall come back to you next year and then your wife Sarah will have a son.” (Gen. 18:1-15)
“This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
— Isaiah 25:9
Isaac, the son of Abraham, would himself provide a great feast for his enemy Abimelech which was the sign of the sealing of a covenant between them both. Abimelech said to Isaac, “Let us make a covenant with you: that you will not do us any harm. He made them a feast and they ate and drank.” (Gen.26:26-30)
The most sacred of all meals in the Hebrew scriptures is the Passover meal. God said to Moses and Aaron, this ritual for Passover, “the community of Israel must keep it.” (Ex. 12:43-51) It is God who invites the Hebrew people who are being released from slavery and death in Egypt to prepare this meal which is a preparation for receiving the covenant of the law (Ten Commandments) at Mount Sinai.
The invitation of hospitality in ancient Hebrew (Jewish) culture is an acknowledgement that guests are sent by God and all guests whether they are known or unknown were looked upon as a friend, especially when they were partaking in a meal. Understanding the importance of hospitality in this ancient culture, the refusal to accept hospitality is a major affront to the host.
Jesus knew his listeners understood the importance of hospitality and the affront it would be to refuse an invitation. Jesus purposefully addresses this parable to the chief priests and elders for this reason. To further understand the Parable of the Wedding Feast, we must hear it on several different levels. When Jesus tells the parable to the chief priests and elders, he equates the Kingdom of Heaven with a wedding feast to illustrate the importance of one who is sending the invitation. God is the King who invites the guest to the wedding feast and Jesus himself is the bridegroom. The guest who ultimately accepts the invitation is the bride. The bride is the Church, God’s kingdom on earth.
But what about the invited guests who reject the invitation? Well, those are the chief priests and elders of the people. We hear how the king will destroy those who rejected the invitation by laying hold of the messengers and killing them. Those messengers were Jesus and the prophets and they not only rejected the servants the king sent, but they also wanted to silence the servants. “He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, tell those invited, behold I have prepared my banquet.” (Matthew 22:4) This great banquet that the king invites us to, is the eschatological banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven. Those invited have a choice to make, accept or reject. When we accept, we have chosen God’s way. Isaiah tells us in the First Reading (Isaiah 25:6-10a) that all people will be provided for in this eschatological banquet. This invitation is the call to universal salvation. The wedding feast in the Old and New Testaments is a sign of final salvation.
When we reject the invitation, we have chosen sin. We are like the invited guests who killed the messenger or the guests who came to the banquet with dirty clothing, not wearing the proper wedding garment. That proper garment is the white garment of baptism. The death that is spoken of in the parable is how sin destroys us and even causes us death, that is to say, spiritual death. Those who refuse the invitation to the banquet are going hungry. They are not allowing Jesus to provide for them the food from Heaven. What we need is the food from Heaven which Jesus supplies for us today in this Eucharistic banquet.
We have been invited to a great and sumptuous feast which by accepting the invitation to participate is the living out of the covenant Jesus Christ has made with us in his passion, death and resurrection. The Eucharist (the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ) that we receive at Mass is the foretaste and a promise that is awaiting us in the great Eucharistic banquet in Heaven. Why would we want to refuse an invitation to such a great feast?
Comments:
You must login to comment.