Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: "The
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his
son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding
banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, ´Tell
those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my
fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding
banquet.´ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to
his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed
them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and
burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, ´The wedding is ready, but those
invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite
everyone you find to the wedding banquet.´ Those slaves went out into the
streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding
hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he
noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him,
´Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?´ And he was
speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ´Bind him hand and foot, and
throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.´ For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22: 1-14)
Introductory Prayer: Lord,
I believe in you because you have created me to be with you. I hope in you
because you always give me what I need to be with you. I love you because you
continue to invite me, in spite of my reticence and sinfulness.
Petition: Lord, grant me
the grace to value heaven and to live in such a way that I can get there.
1. How Dare You Not Accept! God
invites us to accept freely the gift of union with him to which he calls us.
But, lo and behold, we can use our freedom badly and not accept the only thing
that can truly make us happy. This occurs when we forget about God, no longer
giving him the adoration and love he deserves as our Creator and Father,
putting ourselves in first place, and becoming the sole criteria for our
decisions and actions. This passage helps us to remember what type of freedom
we have. We do not have absolute freedom.
We can’t choose what our end should be. Only God is our end. Our
freedom is limited and consists in being free to choose the means that most
efficaciously help us to reach that end.
2. An Undeserved Invitation: Our
possibility of getting to heaven is truly a gift from God. He invites us even
though we are sinners, even though we don’t take his Son’s death and
resurrection seriously, even though we continue to fall in spite of having all
the grace and strength we need to overcome temptation. St. Paul, in his letter
to the Romans, states how hard it is for a man to give his life for another
person (see Romans 4:7). Maybe he would do it for a very good person. Christ
didn’t give his life for good persons; he gave it for sinners. We should be
moved to respond to this amazing manifestation of love for us: Total adherence
to God is the only worthy response.
3. Dressing for the Occasion: God
is good, but he is not naïve. He won’t let us in to full communion with him if
we do not value it properly. The robe mentioned in the Gospel passage is an
image of the soul. The soul that has been purified and is prepared to enter
into heaven wears a wedding robe. The soul that is full of selfishness and sin
is improperly dressed. It is not a matter of God not having mercy on us. It’s a
matter of the use of our freedom. When we encounter something that has value
and know that it will make us better, we have to appropriate that value through
conscious effort. We have to live up to it. We can’t be indifferent or
superficial regarding heaven. We shouldn’t regard it as just something
possible; it should be an existential need.
Conversation with Christ: Dear
Lord, so many times I give more importance to my own satisfaction than to
centering my attention and efforts on achieving true communion with you. Help
me to value your invitation to reach heaven through a truly Christian life that
prefers virtue to sin, disinterested love to selfishness, humility to pride.
Resolution: Today I will try to
work on a virtue that I need so as to respond to God’s love for me.
Learn more about St. Rose of Lima
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