Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 142
A Reading from the Gospel according to Matthew
Mt 22:1-14
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people
in parables, saying,
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants
to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast."'
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.'
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?'
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'
Many are invited, but few are chosen."
Or
Mt 22:1-10
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people
in parables, saying,
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants
to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast."'
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.'
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests."
Salesian Sunday Reflection
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that those who respond to God’s abundance of graces will enter the Kingdom of God. St Francis de Sales expands on our response:
God’s supreme goodness poured forth an abundance of graces over the entire human family. God wills that all be saved through the knowledge of the truth that our Savior came to give us the fire of holy love, and desired that it be kindled in our hearts.
How ardently God desires our love! God does so by filling us with divine love. God, the sun of justice, sends abundant beams of inspirations upon us, warms our hearts with blessings, and touches each of us with the allurements of holy love. It is God’s inspiration that warms our will, helps and reinforces our will, and moves it so gently that the will desires to turn and glide freely toward the good found in God’s inspiration.
God cast into your heart holy inspirations, and you received them. You cooperated with God’s inspirations by giving your consent to them. The movement of your will freely followed upon that of heavenly grace. God continued to strengthen your heart by various movements, until at length God infused into it holy love as your living and perfect health. Yet, you were free to accept or reject this divine goodness.
It was said that a little fish had the power to stop a ship sailing over the high seas. Yet, this fish had no power to make the ship set sail. So it is with our free will. When the favorable wind of God’s grace fills our soul, we can freely choose to refuse or consent to it. Yet, when our spirit sails along and makes a prosperous voyage, it is not we who cause the wind of inspiration to come to us. It is God who gives movement to the ship, our heart. We merely receive and consent to the wind coming from heaven. Blessed are they who respond to God’s word in the depths of their hearts, the Kingdom of God is theirs!
