We are all invited.

You’ve probably received an invitation to a reception, wedding, or reception announcement saying, “You are invited to the festive table. Or you have been personally invited by your fiancé or another celebrant. And you feel you must accept that invitation. Even if you don’t feel like it right away, say: I can’t refuse the invitation.

Today, for the fourth time, the wisdom of God sends His messengers and invites us to His banquet. For two weeks, we have been reading in God’s Word about the mysterious feast to which God is calling us. We are invited to the table of God’s goodness, to the table of God’s Word, and the banquet of the Lamb.

Since the second week, we have been saying it, and are we still rejecting it today? What if we listen to the invitation one last time? What will you say then, in your defense, before God, who knows all our thoughts and words? Consider carefully lest you grieve Jesus as the inhabitants of Capernaum did. And yet Jesus invites us so urgently: come and eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Try to see how good the Lord is. Come, children, hear me…

Jesus says, “Take and eat…. Verily; verily, I say unto you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…” (Jn 6:53).

One of the most striking things in Catholic churches is the perpetual light. It symbolizes the presence of Christ and His constant love for us, which brought Him to the point of constantly giving Himself to us, becoming our fellow citizens by pitching His tent amid our towns and villages. When Christians come to his dwelling place, they kneel. It is one of the ancient symbolic acts expressing humble reverence, submission, and devotion to God. They believe in his presence in the consecrated hosts kept in chalices for the dying.

Yes, brothers and sisters, the sacramental Jesus wants to meet you even at your bedside; he wishes to meet you in sickness and suffering. Jesus longs to meet you and is ready to go to Golgotha once again for you, and you find such an excuse… A Christian Catholic should blush for them! And what about the claim: If a priest came and took care of me, I would die immediately. My brother, dear sister, such is your faith! Yes, it is a faith, but a false faith! Neglected because of an indifferent attitude towards the sacrament of the altar. The anointing was indeed called the last, but it did not mean the later in life but an illness. And now, in the same disease, you can receive the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick more often.

Here, too, the Church is already in the process of bringing about a change so that you don’t have to be afraid. So often you are so scared, brother, sister. Yes, you are afraid of only one thing. Man is afraid of losing what is most important to him in the world. And often, it is not the children, the husband, the wife, but the little money, the car, the career for which one makes so many concessions! The Church does everything in its power. God is almighty, and He will never allow His Church to perish. It is even testified in the Holy Scriptures that the gates of hell will not overpower her. Christ calls us, again and again, to be reconciled to Him and follow Him as faithful Christians.

But what is the reality? Why didn’t you care for your mother, for your father on his deathbed? Why don’t you call a priest to give strength, to restore life to your loved ones? Why are your dear sick and abandoned, deprived of the treasure that is Christ? If you, brother, sister, remain cold, if you are afraid of Jesus who loves you, at least give joy to the sick! Do not wait until the first Friday, but prepare your father, mother, and neighbor for this beautiful encounter! Explain to him, encourage him, and tell him that Jesus is the life. He says of himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (Jn 14:6). So he shows the way and invites everyone to a banquet. He comes as a bridegroom and invites you. And through you, he asks yours home.

I trust, brothers and sisters, that the invitation I extend to you today, the invitation Jesus extends, will not go unanswered. We will no longer be faced with the case of someone dear to us dying without having been reconciled to Christ.
Take care because you will have to answer for your father and your mother because you neglected your duty one day. Because God’s fourth commandment also obligates you, even when you are grown up when you have your children, your family! And do you want to die without Christ? And you, my grandfathers and mothers, ask for this meeting. Command your loved ones to give you a good death; write it in your spiritual will! And if the illness presses you to the bed, and you lie longer, call a priest; he cannot take care of you, he cannot give you the Sacrament of the Sick, but he can bring you the Eucharistic Christ at least once a week. The priest waits for you together with Christ. It hurts Christ and the priest when he has to bury a brother or sister who died without the sacraments. When a person falls ill, you immediately call a doctor to him, but you do not let the doctor of the heart wait until the body has grown cold when the soul has already come before the face of the righteous judge. When we are distressed and sue those who cannot help us because the same sorrows beset them, Jesus is there!
So take away from this reflection just one resolution: I will personally take care of my dear neighbor and help him arrange a meeting and a pleasant visit with Christ.

Even Pope Paul VI was not afraid of this sacrament. Msgr. After his death, Macchi, his secretary for 24 years, said, “From the first day I was his secretary, the Holy Father preached to me to always have the holy oils at hand. On the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, after the six o’clock Mass, which the Holy Father was watching from his bed, he asked me to administer the Sacrament of the Sick to him. I administered it to him with feeling; he was fully conscious and responded to me kindly.”
Is this proof, given by our Holy Father, whom we hold in such high esteem, insufficient?

Jean, an English lord, had a ridiculous fool in his castle. He bought him a fool’s cap with rattles, put it on his head, and said:
– “Wear this cap to show that you are a fool. Please don’t give it to anyone unless you find someone who is a bigger fool than you.
Years later, when the Prince was dying and saying goodbye to his family, friends, and the Fool, the Fool asked him:
– Where are you going, sir?
– I don’t know.
– And what are you taking with you on your journey?
– Nothing, – replied his master, for he has spent his whole life-giving gifts.
– Nothing? – the fool asks himself. He takes off his cap, puts it on his master’s head, and says: “Today, I found a man who is a bigger fool than me.

We have received an invitation. Jesus himself has invited us to his banquet. Whether we accept the invitation depends on us. Jesus does not expect gifts, he only wants our sins, and he wants to give us gifts. Therefore: Come, Lord Jesus!