Dressing for the Feast

10-15-2023Weekly ReflectionDr. Scott Hahn

Our Lord's parable in today's Gospel is again a fairly straightforward outline of salvation history. God is the king (see Matthew 5:35), Jesus the bridegroom (see Matthew 9:15), the feast is the salvation and eternal life that Isaiah prophesies in today's First Reading. The Israelites are those first invited to the feast by God's servants, the prophets (see Isaiah 7:25). For refusing repeated invitations and even killing His prophets, Israel has been punished, its city conquered by foreign armies.

Now, Jesus makes clear, God has sending new servants, His apostles, to call not only Israelites, but all people - good and bad alike - to the feast of His kingdom. This an image of the Church, which Jesus elsewhere compares to a field sown with both wheat and weeds, and a fishing net that catches good fish and bad (see Matthew 13:24-43, 47-50).

We have all been called to this great feast of love in the Church, where, as Isaiah foretold, the veil that once separated the nations from the covenants of Israel has been destroyed, where the dividing wall of enmity has been torn down by the blood of Christ (see Ephesians 2:11-14).

As we sing in today's Psalm, the Lord has led us to this feast, refreshing our souls in the waters of baptism, spreading the table before us in the Eucharist. As Paul tells us in today's Epistle, in the glorious riches of Christ, we will find supplied whatever we need.

And in the rich food of His body, and the choice wine of His blood, we have a foretaste of the eternal banquet in the heavenly Jerusalem, when God will destroy death forever (see Hebrews 12:22-24).

But are we dressed for the feast, clothed in the garment of righteousness (see Revelation 19:8)? Not all who have been called will be chosen for eternal life, Jesus warns. Let us be sure that we're living in a manner worthy of the invitation we've received (see Ephesians 4:1).  

A service of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology
www.SalvationHistory.com

Comentario al Evangelio del Domingo

Jesús habla en esta parábola de un rey que invita a mucha gente al banquete de boda de su hijo, pero sorprendentemente ninguno de los invitados acude a la celebración. Las excusas son muchas y variadas, pero el resultado final es que no acuden. “Dios es bueno con nosotros, nos ofrece gratuitamente su amistad, nos ofrece gratuitamente su alegría, su salvación -comenta el Papa Francisco-, pero muchas veces no acogemos sus dones, ponemos en primer lugar nuestras preocupaciones materiales, nuestros intereses; e incluso cuando el Señor nos llama, muchas veces parece que nos da fastidio”

En la parábola de Jesús queda claro que no importa lo que se haya hecho en el pasado pero que es necesaria una condición indispensable, vestir el traje de bodas, es decir, tener el alma limpia y un corazón arrepentido, abrazar un tono de vida que sea testimonio de la caridad hacia Dios y el prójimo. Jesús invita a todos a su mesa, pero reclama respeto para acercarse a ella. Por eso, san Pablo, recordaba a los cristianos de Corinto que antes de acercarse al banquete de la Eucaristía, sacramento donde pregustamos de un anticipo de la gloria celestial, debían examinar cuidadosamente su conciencia: “Examínese, por tanto, cada uno a sí mismo, y entonces coma del pan y beba del cáliz; porque el que come y bebe sin discernir el Cuerpo, come y bebe su propia condenación” (1 Corintios 11, 28-29).

Hoy es un buen día, aunque nos sintamos manchados, para limpiar el alma, abrazar el amor y gozar de la invitación que Jesús nos hace al banquete celestial.

(Fuente: opusdei.org)