Homily from the Parish Priest for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings for Year A: Isaiah 25:6-10; Philippians 4:12-20; Matthew 22:1-14
The judgment of God – what do we really believe about life and death – about heaven, hell, the last things? The story of the wedding feast depicted in this Gospel is an invitation to us to reflect on the next life – to that state to which we are all called. We are all of us called to go there – to find our true destiny – to respond fully to that call which sets us on that road to eternal happiness in the life to come.
But this Gospel also issues a stark reminder that God will judge us on our response, on our actions, and whilst many are called, few are chosen. Now of course we know very well God is love – why wouldn’t he want to admit us to his presence forever? And that is the central kernel of Christian teaching about the next life. But that is not the sum total of the Christian message. To reduce the Christian message to ‘God loves us and wants us to be happy’ sums up the Christian faith but recognition of it opens up fuller more challenging dimensions of living the Christian life in emulating God’s love. And part of this rests on a belief in a God who as our loving saviour judges us and rewards us for how we respond to him in this life.
The background to this Gospel is important. St Matthew is writing for a Jewish audience. Jews who should have known better reject God’s invitation: Jews and Gentiles alike invited; God invites us all; he also invites the good and the bad. God invites us all, despite what we have done, to repent and so partake of the eternal banquet prepared for us sealed in the blood of the Lamb whose sacrifice has sealed the invitation to this eternal banquet.
And here we touch what our Catholic spirituality calls the sacramental – the meeting of heaven and earth – through the very gift of The Lamb made truly substantially present in the Church. The pledge of our eternal salvation. He who has been sacrificed – once-and-for-all – that’s a cause for great thanksgiving, celebration and joy – and it’s in that spirit we can pray also that those who have gone before us may be prepared to experience his loving embrace and be released from what holds them back from it. And so we believe our prayers, especially in the greatest prayer of the sacrifice of the Mass where that great eucharistic sacrifice is celebrated and re-enacted, can make a difference.
But it’s also a time to reflect ourselves on our own end, on the last things for us, on the fragility of our lives and of our physical environment. We don’t need to look very far to notice that: the effects of this dreadful pandemic, the trauma so many are going through, and then there are the effects of climate change, the ravages of war, those who die young for no apparent reason apart from disease and genetic make-up. The more we reflect on the end of it all the more we’re called to the centre of our faith: to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb once-and-for-all: he who gives us true hope, what deep down makes us believe that this life is not the end but just a passing point on the journey as we prepare on our pilgrimage for that for which we are really made, union with the Lamb forever.
Above all to appreciate deeply how in the midst of all this the Christian must hold onto something important. In the midst of what seemed like the end of the world to the disciples – the destruction of the holy city Jerusalem here referred to as the consequence of the People of Israel’s rejection of God and His offer of eternal peace. A disaster, calamity, terrible tragedy, we cannot comprehend for the original listeners to the narrative which has now become the Gospel of Matthew: the Christian believer must go back to the truth of the Gospel spoken by Our Lord himself to the disciples: when the world itself seems to be being destroyed we are called to hope again in heaven, to renew ourselves in what is the central truth without which our faith becomes stagnant, untested, unreal. That is that deep in the mystery of this dreadful time of tragedy the Christian can hope because Christ has won that victory over death for ever and opened for us the gates of heaven.
Very shortly we will hear these words as we prepare to receive Holy Communion: “Behold the Lamb…” and we respond “Lord, I am not worthy…” – an opportunity to do some soul-searching as it were – to ask myself what deep down in my soul needs to be healed before I take my place in the Wedding Feast – how do I live out my calling – my baptism – showing I am a Christian? “Lord I am not worthy to come to the Wedding Feast” but ‘only’ – ‘only’ say the word and my soul shall be healed. Deep down in my soul, in my heart. And so we approach Holy Communion with great confidence that our own unworthiness will be transformed by his grace. Let’s take that first step as we encounter the Lord. The Lord Who heals us, who loves us deeply, who wants to draw us more closely to him so we may enter his Wedding Feast as a bride ready for that celebration of joy and fulfilment.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ