Working with the Word

Focusing the Gospel

Key words and phrases: king, wedding feast, invited guests, refused to come, gathered ... bad and good alike, hall was filled with guests

To the point: The king is adamant about filling the wedding hall with guests. His initial guest list has been carefully drawn up, but when these invited guests do not come, the king sends his servants out to invite anyone and everyone. The hall must be filled. The issue, therefore, is not who is invited, but who will choose to come. God persistently invites us to the royal banquet in the “kingdom of heaven.” But the gracious invitation requires our positive and definite response.

Connecting the Gospel …

… to the First Reading: Isaiah describes a lavish banquet given when death is destroyed and sorrow is no more. The wedding feast described in the gospel is this banquet and more. It is the messianic banquet at the end of time when God will have completed the saving work for which the Son was sent to us.

… to experience: Most of us receive invitations to all kinds of things, some of them of consequence (like an invitation to the wedding of a close family member), others of little consequence (like an invitation to the opening of a new department store). In both cases a response is required. But one response has far greater consequences than the other.

**From Saint Louis University