I have been  into many weddings and being invited  is such a great pleasure.  Everybody is prepared, well-dressed and all the emotions are extremely present. The life that we have is a journey of relationship.  In many forms or ways, we engage ourselves with God’s creations. The journey that we are taking is full of difficulties, along the way, we can experience conflict, disharmony, being left alone and violence.  In spite of all, the hardships the grace and mercy of God enables us to move forward.  In today’s gospel passage, the King sent his servants to call the invited guests to the banquet, but the guests refused to come.  In such a case, if we put it in the context of Filipino culture, one would think that receiving such an invitation would make his best just to attend and even modifying the schedules being made.  Those invited made light of the king’s invitation-perhaps some thought it was some kind of a joke and others found their personal interests more important than accepting a  gracious invitation. Whatever the case or reasons they have, no one accepted the invitation. At this point, we would certainly be justified in moving to the last part of the parable and focus on the the common folk. Those who were first invited by the king have a great importance, however, they did not come. We are likened to those invited guests who did not come  because of their different preoccupations in life. The event reflects the very condition that we have at present – we are not that good in making ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ. We too are distracted with other things such as our hobbies, our jobs, and our personal time.  Jesus calls us to live and to have a vital relationship with Him, on the contrary, we prefer to prefer to keep the that relationship at a distance.  It amazes me always how God continually reaching out the humanity.  God wants a relationship with us.  The depth of faith is not determined by the number of religious activities in which we are involved every week, rather  faith is living each day, celebrating God’s love and grace, and trusting that God is guiding us and walking with us through our adventure.  We may be outcast into darkness and there at times the Lord is giving us light.  We may feel that there is nowhere to go.  However, it would make us realize that we need to dwell with God who knows everything about us.  God sent His Son into the world and that must be a worth celebrating for. His comes but was rejected by his own people.  and He will bring judgement upon those people who did not heed his call.  As a result, the kingdom of heaven was opened up to anyone who will set aside his own personal intentions and accepts the invitation of God.  The wedding invitation is extended to everyone, both good or bad.  It is not the will of God to cast anyone out.  He has made full provision for a wedding garment for all of us.  But only those who put it on will enter into the joy of the Lord.  God issues the invitation through the Gospel.  His life, His death and His resurrection are part of the invitation that beckons us to come and place our trust on Him.  The Lord is inviting us to discover life – life as it really is.  All of us can partake of the table of the Lord but God is watching our hearts – whether our heart has really accepted the gift of life and genuinely entered the joy and the glory to know Jesus Christ.  God invites us to with Him with a good and loving heart coming from the Lord.

And our story reminds us that this is not something to be taken lightly.  Even it all reject the invitation but still, one remains worthy to come and take part in the preparation.  God has clothed us with garments of love and righteousness.  We do well to get dressed – equipped by God to attend the banquet.  Save the date and you are invited!

Source: Neo Jeremiah – Voice of the Young Prophet Newsletter, October 15, 2017 issue.