Edited Sunday reflection for October 11, 2026, from the year 2014 (A)
October 12, 2014
Liturgical readings
Isaiah 25:6-10a
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
Matthew 22:1-14
"They rounded up everyone they met, bad as well as good."
Some parables of Jesus involve the theme of God's judgment. This Sunday's parable of the wedding feast is a good example of that theme. The judgment of God is shown through an analogy made for the parable, with a king representing the image of God.
The parable presents a king who organized a big banquet for his son's wedding and sent out invitations. When the feast was ready, the king ordered his servants to summon those invited for the wedding feast, but those invited refused to come. The king then sent a second group of servants. The servants encountered these responses: one ignored the invitation and went to his farm, another did the same to manage his business, and the rest got hold of the servants and killed them. The king naturally got furious, and in his wrath, he sent his army to destroy the killers and burned their city.
Now the wedding feast for his son had already been prepared. It would be a great waste if the feast did not proceed. So the king again sent out his servants to invite anyone they could see. The servants invited everyone, filling the wedding hall with guests, both bad and good.
How do the classics interpret this parable?
According to St. Thomas of Aquinas, the banquet in the parable is like the Eucharistic banquet. In the Eucharist, all are invited to come and partake of it - both saints and sinners. All are healed and comforted. Sins are purged away. Virtues are increased. Souls are enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. All who celebrate the Eucharist are privileged to receive the wonderful effects which every Mass provides.
The Eucharist is not exclusive; it is inclusive - always seeking to include more. But even when the invitation is for all, some do not give the Sacrament the importance and value it has since Christ instituted it in the Last Supper. As the Christian faith grew in the history of the Church, not all were consistent with their baptismal vows. They "ignore it, go their way to their farm or to their business". And others even lay hold of its servants, "insulting them and killing them" - as the many names of martyrs in the martyrology of the Church testify.
From another perspective, the point of the parable can be explained in a modern context. Fr. Herman Hendrickx, CICM, a well known bible scholar and professor, wrote about this in his book, "The Parables of Jesus." His analysis of the text is very exegetical. But it can be understood, by simply looking at the types of persons represented in the parable: the rich and the poor. It was the rich and the well-to-do who saw excuses to ignore the invitation. They had a farm, a business, and even political clout to disrespect the king's servants and kill them.
Since the setting of the story was a "kingdom" and kings had absolute power, those who killed his servants thus received the judgment of the king - their death and the burning of their city. But there is another theme, not that obvious, that can be gleaned from this parable. There is also the message of grace - a gift, something totally gratuitous. The invitation to the wedding feast extended now to those who did not expect it; those who were well-to-do with farms and businesses, but maybe not "known to the king" or not within the king's "inner circle". And this is the great blessing: it included the poor and the outcasts who may have heard about the event but naturally did not expect to be invited. All were gathered in the wedding hall.
Returning to the story, the parable continues with the king entering the wedding hall to meet the guests. It appears that there was one without a wedding garment. The king was not happy with that guest and had his servants put him out of the wedding hall. This has been interpreted by some bible scholars as representing Christians who receive baptism but do not behave or conform in a way which is consistent with their initial baptismal response. Many are indeed invited, but few are chosen.
Applying the analogy of the wedding banquet as pointing to the Eucharist, just as the king's wedding feast for his son invited both rich and poor, the Eucharist is for all political, socio-cultural and economic classes. Christ instituted the Eucharist for everyone. The sacrament is meant to strengthen the good in all, and to prune away what is evil. The Church's mission is to make known the value and importance of God's Word and Sacrament in the Eucharist. But the Church also respects religious freedom and teaches that non-Catholics who do not convert to the Church can still receive salvation from God, but not its fullness. A Vatican II document teaches that full salvation still "subsists" in the Catholic Church.
This is one reason why the Church now integrates religious freedom as a human right, but at the same time continues to send and expand the Kingdom of God through its priestly, religious, and lay missionaries. These missionaries teach the Bible, the prayer traditions, and the value of the Sacraments to non-Catholics and non-believers. They certainly deserve the universal Church's prayers and support, because even in this present time, the experience of God's servants being "insulted and killed" for witnessing to the Christ of the gospels is a continuing reality.
We know that commitment is not cheap. Through the hard work of these missionaries, God's faithfulness and mercy become real. God in the Church continues to call, to enter people's lives, and make them aware of Christ, His Son, the great spiritual treasure of the Eucharist. And the Church brings this treasure even to the remotest mountain villages of the world.
Scripture quote:
"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples...a feast of rich food and choice wines...The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; the reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth." (Isaiah 25)
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