Twenty-eighth Sunday “through the year A

We are all invited by God (Matthew 21.1-14)
Responsibly behave to God’s invitation to his salvation feast or wedding evoke in us a joyous idea. That’s when we meet the nearest and dearest; the table is richly met, pleasant mood, and especially the joy of seeing happy ones who are going to feast. Jesus, in a parable of “the king who arranged the wedding to his son” (Matthew. 22.2), points to our salvation in the Kingdom of God. Most of us are indeed afraid of death. We don’t want to die. That’s because we didn’t understand that at the end of our lives, it would not just be the court, but those who fulfilled the will of God on earth, waiting for a feast. Those who build a paradise on earth lie. An ex understanding of the parable may make Jesus want to fill people with fear to accept it. The truth needs to be understood. The King in the Gospel is God the Father. He prepared the wedding to the Son, Jesus, who is to be King of all invitees. God, who since eternity wants all men to participate in his joys in the Kingdom of God, has not forgotten anything. In words – I have already prepared – we can hear what St. Paul writes: “Neither the eye has seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it entered the human heart, which God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9). It’s not the original idea of St. Peter’s. Paul, but it is probably a combination of the words of the prophets Isaiah (64,3) and Jeremiah (3.16), who already write in the Old Testament about the reward that God is preparing to the faithful. The first group to be addressed by the King’s servants is the chosen Jewish people on a historical scale. This nation was chosen by God first, and they should have been participating in his Kingdom of God. They refused their invitation to God. They prefer different possible things, field or trade. And when we know from the Old Testament that not only did they not listen to the prophets, but they were even imprisoned and killed, the King— God punishes the nation. Jesus elsewhere predicted the terrible punishment of Jerusalem. And in the 70s, Roman troops, led by Vespasian and Titus, destroyed the city, and the Jews did not have a state until 1948. God, despite their infidelity, will keep the word he gave to his great-father Abraham. God still loves his nation today because his Son was a Jew, after all. When the Jewish people declined the invitation, God does not call off the wedding but extends the invitation to all the world’s nations. The parable concerns not only the chosen nation as a whole but also individuals. In words: “… all you will find, call the wedding…” (Matthew. 22.9), is seen as missionary command by the Apostolate: “Go and teach all nations…” (Mt 28.19). The whole world has learned about Christ. The parable confirms God’s general will to save the world and all humanity in it. Life on earth is really not a man’s goal, but a preparation for eternity. God rightly already punishes individuals and nations on earth for their sins. Still, he does not commit them to accept his invitation to marry in order to participate in eternal life in his Kingdom. God respects the freedom of man.” The wedding hall was filled with guests” (Matthew 22.10). It was gathered by good and bad. What is the norm that someone is good, and another is bad? Indifference. An indifferent man is not against God or the Church, but in his freedom, he has no time for God, he has his plans. It’s the most numerous group. Superficiality. This group is represented by a man from a parable who comes to the banquet without a wedding robe. He accepted the invitation, but the inside is empty. Festive Christians, or those who are satisfied only with baptism, and do not carry out their duties and the rights of a Christian. They are dry sprigs on the vine of Christ. Resistance. Those who, by their principle, do not respect God. God is their enemy. Love. A faithful man realizes his weaknesses, but nevertheless accepts and fulfills the will of God. The coming of the King among the wedding guests is an expression for God’s second coming into the world, but also an expression for the personal judgment of every man. The difference is that every person accepts his personal reward or punishment at the hour of his death, and at the end of the world, all the mission of the people on earth will be completed. That God is a righteous Judge, to see in the parable that a man who came without a wedding robe, that is, even when he was invited to the wedding, died, but as a free man did not accept God as his Lord, at the moment of meeting God the Judge was not a friend of God, was not in a state of grace, did not have a wedding dress that would allow him to enter and attend the banquet. He is, therefore, rightly and fairly denounced. The expression: “He l” (Matthew. 22.12) clearly states that the calculation, speculating, postponement with correction after sin, indifference to the duties of the man himself is excluded from friendship with God. He won’t be able to make excuses, apologize at that moment; he won’t be able to fix things, events… The image of tying legs and hands speaks of human helplessness. He’s not going to take anything off the ground; he’s not going to get anything that’s not worth it to God. Throwing it into the dark is a picture not of extinction, of the end of life, but punishment. Darkness is the opposite of light, which is life. Every person knows that life in the dark is a state of pain. And how does the pain manifest itself? Crying and teeth grinding is a state of despair. In this scenario, the status will not have an end. There will be no more way to change anything. They won’t be eager to change anymore. Their resentfulness, hatred of God, and self will be their punishment. Pain without end. The parable of the royal wedding invites us to live as Jesus teaches, literally and to the fullest. If not, we’ll start believing the way we live which means we’ll stop believing. We will become enemies of God because he is the enemy of sinful life. If we look more at the field or look more behind a shop, we are similar to those the Lord has destroyed and their work destroyed. Even today, the world seduces us. He calls that we leave the Gospel, that we do not dye according to the Lord Jesus’s teachings. However, who does not live according to Christ does not accept the invitation to the wedding of the King because he has turned ephemeral into eternal. Only the right man can sit in the wedding hall, who will fulfill the will of the one who called him. Believing and living according to faith is challenging, but possible, and every person is called upon to do so by Christ himself. Christ’s death on the cross is the reconciliation of each of us with the Father and at the same time the challenge of living with Christ. Believing in God, and not to drink in his words, is a warning to us. He’s a man without a wedding robe. King Henry VIII of England left his wife and lived in an illicit affair with Anna Boleyn. Once they stood by the window and watched the starry sky, then Anna said, “How beautiful the sky is! The nicer the sky will be there behind the stars!” Her words penetrated deeply like a sword into the heart of the King. He thought and came up with the terms of St. Paul: “Make no er change: not even the fornication,… or adulterers… shall not be heirs to the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6,9). Moved to the depths of his soul, he took his bridesmaid’s hand and, turning her away from the window, said, “Come on, Anna, it’s not for us!” We realize that God has invited us all. Each person responds to the invitation himself with his life. Although God wants us all there, not everyone will get there. So, it is necessary to live in friendship with God, always to wear a wedding dress, that is, to be at the mercy of the sanctifying. At today’s Eucharistic banquet, let us look to be at the heart of God. Let us take strength, perseverance on the way of life to God. Let us pray for the hour of our death that we may be in the wedding robes of God’s grace.