{"id":1472,"date":"2014-10-11T07:47:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T11:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2014-10-11T07:47:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T11:47:30","slug":"28th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/28th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

28th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 25:6-10a
\nPhilippians 4:12-14, 19-20
\nMatthew 22:1-14
\nOctober 12, 2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Isaiah speaks of how God will provide \u201ca feast of rich food and choice wines.\u201d\u00a0 This feast comes at the end of the ages and is celebrated as the great banquet in Heaven.<\/p>\n

But first the Lord has work to do, to destroy the veil that veils all people, death.\u00a0 The people in those days say death as a final end and that shaped the way they viewed the world.\u00a0 As Lord, Jesus comes and shows us that earthly deathly is not the end.\u00a0 He shows us eternal life and so lifts the veil of death.\u00a0 Knowing there is something more after life as we know it ends in this world, changes the way we look at life.<\/p>\n

Jesus speaks of a great wedding banquet.\u00a0 The king\u2019s son is getting married and the king is throwing a huge banquet.\u00a0 Everyone has known this day was coming but now that it has arrived they are refusing the invitation.\u00a0 The king repeats the invitation.\u00a0 Still some ignore the invitation but others mistreat and even kill the servants who bring the invitation.\u00a0 So the king invites strangers off the street.\u00a0 One does not come dressed appropriately.\u00a0 We might wonder how the king can expect the guest to come dressed appropriately.\u00a0 The guest didn\u2019t know he was going to be invited and had no time to prepare.<\/p>\n

Of course, in telling this parable, Jesus is really speaking about being part of God\u2019s kingdom.\u00a0 Ever since the death of King David, the Israelites had been waiting for a new messiah king, a son of the line of David.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the messiah that they have been waiting for.\u00a0 What is the response of the Israelites?\u00a0 Some ignore him, some mistreat him, and some kill him.\u00a0 They have been waiting for centuries and that Jesus has finally come, they\u2019re not interested.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s their choice.\u00a0 With their refusal the invitation to be part of God\u2019s heavenly banquet will be offered to the Gentiles, people who did not believe in the one true God.<\/p>\n

Since it is a last minute invitation, one might see it as a come as you are party.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t. \u00a0We have to come dressed appropriately.\u00a0 It seems today like a lot of people today just figure if they know about Jesus and God, they will get into Heaven.\u00a0 Knowing about Jesus isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

In John 14:1-6, which is probably the most often used gospel at funerals, Jesus tells us that he goes to prepare a place in his Father\u2019s house.\u00a0 Jesus says the only way in is to believe in him.<\/p>\n

We just have to truly <\/em>believe in Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s not enough to say we believe.\u00a0 We need to live it.\u00a0 We must prepare accordingly.<\/p>\n

This still leaves us with the question about the man who did not come dressed appropriately.\u00a0 There may be people who really don\u2019t know about Jesus and they will be judged according.\u00a0 They may not have known about Jesus but they still could choose to be good and caring people.<\/p>\n

Of course, we are not perfect.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Jesus gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation so we can confess our sins, repent, and be clothed in grace so that we can enter Heaven.<\/p>\n

There are people who choose to live in ways that do not follow God\u2019s ways.\u00a0 This is their choice.<\/p>\n

Jesus offers the gift of salvation to all.\u00a0 Not everyone accepts the gift.\u00a0 You know before we updated the translations for Mass, at the words of consecration of the wine into blood, the priest used to say that Jesus died for all.\u00a0 Now we say \u201cfor many.\u201d<\/p>\n

This troubles some people but it reflects reality, not that salvation isn\u2019t offered to everyone.\u00a0 Jesus offers the invitation to the heavenly banquet to each and every person but not all accept it.\u00a0 Many do but not all.<\/p>\n

Salvation is a gift offered to all.\u00a0 Some take it lightly, some take it very seriously.\u00a0 We need to take it seriously.\u00a0 This is eternity and the heavenly banquet that we are talking about here.<\/p>\n

Today we celebrate the Eucharist as our earthly participation in the heavenly banquet.\u00a0 We need to take it seriously.\u00a0 What we receive at Communion is not just bread and wine.\u00a0 It is the Body and Blood of Jesus.<\/p>\n

How much do we take it for granted?<\/p>\n

How much do we think about what it is we are receiving?<\/p>\n

When we come forth to receive Communion we are saying that we believe it is the Body and Blood of Jesus that we are receiving.\u00a0 We are saying we believe that Jesus is the Way and the Truth, and the Life.<\/p>\n

We are saying we believe but do we act like we believe?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Isaiah 25:6-10a Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 Matthew 22:1-14 October 12, 2014   Isaiah speaks of how God will provide \u201ca feast of rich food and choice wines.\u201d\u00a0 This feast comes at the end of the ages and is celebrated as the great banquet in Heaven. But first the Lord …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-nK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1473,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}