HOMILY FOR TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME (A)

Fr Billy Swan

Dear friends. I write these words on a Friday night, two doors down from where Pope Francis lived here in Casa Santa Martha in Vatican City. The chapel where he prayed and celebrated Mass is next door to my room. Needless to say, I think of him often. He came to mind as I prepared this homily and what he used to frequently say when it came to the mission of the Church: ‘Todos, todos, todos…everyone, everyone, everyone’.

With these words, Pope Francis captured the spirit of today’s Gospel where Jesus tells a parable that is directed to ‘the chief priests and elders’. Context here is important. Jesus had many clashes with ‘the chief priests and elders’ because of their exclusivism and judgment of who was worthy of God’s love and who wasn’t. This explains the story Jesus tells where there is an open invitation of the King to his sons’s wedding. There were lots of invited guests and when they made excuses not to come, he went out and invited todos, todos, todos, everyone, everyone and all, the good and bad alike.

The King in the parable represents God the Father and his son’s wedding banquet is the great marriage of Jesus himself as Son, with his people, the Church (that’s us). This is the great feast to which all of us are invited. This insistence on inclusion would have been shocking to Jesus’ listeners at the time because it meant that sinners did not have to repent first before receiving God’s mercy but rather because God loved them first, accepting this gift and invitation to come to the banquet would change them. We think here of the case of Zacchaeus who was not asked to repent first before Jesus came to his house. But because Jesus came into his house and into his life, he changed. Grace comes first. It is always that way round.

Friends, here is the key to us becoming missionary disciples today. It begins with us believing that the gift of faith we have is precious and beautiful – so much so that we cannot keep it to ourselves. It is about us having a burning desire that others share their lives with us within the family of the Church. And yes, this means the Eucharist too. It is no coincidence that the Mass has always been understood as the wedding banquet of the bridegroom (Jesus, the Son) and the bride (the Church, us).

That’s why Pope Francis was concerned and upset, as we should be too, about so many people who are disconnected and alienated. This missionary desire that is inclusive at its core, comes from the loving heart of God himself whose will is that all people be saved. God wants everyone to be embraced into his life. Whether or not others are more or less worthy than us, is not our business. As a missionary disciple, if one person discovers the beauty and meaning of faith then my only response is to celebrate with them.

Is that how the story ends?? No, and this is why the parable is unsettling. At the end of it, Jesus includes the curious detail of the man who was in the banquet hall with no wedding garment and is booted out. It seems a bit harsh, doesn’t it? How does that square with todos, todos, todos?

The point that Jesus is making is that while we are all invited to the banquet and invited to a life of joy and friendship with God, our own plans and stubbornness can and do get in the way.

Look at all the excuses the invited guests make in the parable. For the King, it is the wedding of his son. Nothing was more important. And what do the guests do? They decline because other things were more important.

It is not difficult to see parallels today. Things like sports, entertainment and other social events now take priority in the lives of many over faith commitments. The excuses you hear for not being able to come to Mass on Sundays is not that they don’t believe anymore or that they are hostile. They just have other things to do. And yet, God extends his invitation again and again and again.

And then there is the man who had no wedding garment. Who does he represent? All of us. It is the person who has received God’s love and mercy but who stubbornly lives as if he hasn’t. It is an unwillingness to conform to the demands of the Gospel and to basically do our own thing. It is insisting that ‘My will be done’ and not ‘Thy will be done’. It is grasping the rights of being Christian without committing to any of the responsibilities.

I conclude with a wonderful quote from St Irenaeus of Lyon who captures something of the mysterious tension between God’s Kingdom being open to all and yet demands our conversion. ‘God loves us as we are. But so much that we will not remain as we are’.

God loved us first. He never stops loving and inviting. Responding is dangerous because it will change us. Are you willing to take the risk?