Come to the feast!

Banquets and feasting draw us into Sunday’s readings. Isaiah’s banquet of luscious feasting and drinking points to the end times — the eschatological time — when all people will be gathered on God’s holy mountain and all will be celebrating! Forgiveness and mercy will flow like choice wine; death shall be overcome and tears will be wiped away. There will be joy and gladness because the LORD has saved the people — all people. 

This hopeful promise echoes down to us today and Sunday’s reading is one of the lectionary choices for funeral liturgies. Our family chose this reading for our mom’s funeral because she was a lover of rich food! We look forward to feasting with her at the heavenly banquet and having our tears wiped away. We trust that Jesus had secured this promise in his own resurrection!

This feasting theme is woven into the Gospel in the parable of the wedding banquet. However, the tone is somber because unlike Isaiah’s vision of celebrating, the chosen guests refuse the generous invitation from the king! This is almost unbelievable, since it would have been a terrible affront to the king to refuse his invitation to such an important event. And these chosen ones were not content with turning down the invitation, but they even mistreated and killed the messengers! Jesus has invited us to allegorize this parable: the King is God and Jesus is the King’s son. The servants are the prophets who have been sent with the message to feast at the royal banquet of the covenant. The respectable and religious people have turned away from the invitation because of their agendas and preoccupations. 

Now the invitation goes out to those who would have been considered unworthy — the marginal ones — “the bad and the good alike.” The wedding hall is filled! Jesus subtly reminds the leaders of the people that those they despise and look down on — the tax collectors and prostitutes, for example — have accepted the invitation to listen to Jesus and even to follow him! They will feast at this sumptuous banquet of mercy and love.

Have we accepted this most gracious invitation? Every day, God sends us invitations to the banquet of friendship with the Holy One. Our daily reflection on the Word, our morning prayer, our appreciation for and time in creation — all ways to feast on this relationship. Are we truly present at the Eucharistic meal — the best of rich food and choice wine? Do we contribute to a welcoming Eucharistic faith community? Do we celebrate the simple gifts of family and friends by giving them our time and attention? Do we revel in gratitude for the invitation to the extravagant graces, “the glorious riches in Christ,” as St. Paul says? 

We must take care to consider these moments of our daily lives as invitations and not ignore them and go away to our preoccupations. We must be careful not to accept the invitation half-heartedly, like the man who did not don his wedding garment (which would have been provided to him). Let’s send in a positive RSVP! The Holy One offers us so much — all we need to do is respond to the Presence in the present moment. Let the feasting begin!