May Your grace, O Lord, we pray, at all times go before us and follow after and make us always determined to carry out good works...
collect for the 28th Sunday
First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10a
Responsorial: Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Second reading: Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

Living for the Eternal Banquet
by Father Joseph Scolaro
​Everyone enjoys a good party. It’s a time to be together with family and friends, there’s plenty of food and drink, and worries melt away for at least the time of the celebration. A party becomes a time where we step out of our routine and enjoy the good things of life. Especially in a culture where there is a great amount of need and want, a feast is a moment to forget anxiety and celebrate what abundance is to be had. In our culture of plenty, a feast can perhaps lose some of its richness, with so many being on diets rather than going hungry, but we nevertheless appreciate the time to kick back.

In the first reading we hear part of Isaiah’s eschatological writing where he speaks of an eternal feast. Having spoken of desolation in prior chapters, he writes of the subsequent time of blessing when all will be united on Zion. Rather than just being a time of celebration, it is a time of restoration. The nations, scattered since the Tower of Babel, will be drawn together as one. Death and suffering, a part of human life since Adam and Eve, will be wiped away. The reproach due to us for our sins will be no more. The image of a feast as a stepping out of the work of daily life is magnified whereby the eternal feast is a time where we step out of the travails of life as whole. Particularly in a time where life was far shorter and more burdensome for most, this would be a welcome image.
    
And this is an image extended beautifully and poetically in Psalm 23. Life with the shepherd is life with a small taste of that security and comfort. In good and in ill, the shepherd guides, comforts, and protects. The burdens and pains of life lose their horror with the knowledge that the shepherd is there with rod and staff. All evils in this life, when put in perspective, fade before eternal hopes of dwelling in the house of God for years to come.
    
St Paul in his letter to the Philippians writes while he is himself in a moment of great difficulty. Imprisoned and facing death, he is grateful to the Christians of Philippi for their generous support, but writes of his abandonment to God. Needing only his eternal shepherd, he is able to persevere through good and ill. He trusts that God will supply what he needs, and he is therefore able to surrender all that he wants. We see through his example that life becomes a banquet at all times when we learn to feast not on what we want but on what we need. The love of God and the support of others are sufficient to live with joy.
    
The Gospel then brings the image of God’s banquet into our lives. All are invited to the eternal feast, and to be found there are the greatest riches and comforts. And yet, to the surprise of the master, so many refuse the invitation. How many in our world refuse Christ’s invitation to eternal joy? Are they too busy with their work? With hobbies or amusements? How many refuse because they do not like the message? Or are turned away by the messengers? If they truly understood what they were turning down, would they do so? As Christians, it is our job to help others see that perfect satisfaction and joy that will be found at the eternal table. No one can be led there by force; they must be invited. And just as Christ extends the invitation to us on the cross, so too we extend it by our love and mercy.
    
We also hear in the Gospel that there are others who, while accepting the invitation, are not prepared. Life is very much a preparation for death, yet how many of us get so caught up in this life, that we forget? The curse of a blessed life is that it is easy to enjoy life and forget that it is passing, that it is meant to be the means to reach an even greater end. When we rely on ourselves rather than the eternal shepherd, we can be afraid to abandon ourselves to him and try to grasp onto this life all the more.
    
We celebrate each week our small taste of the eternal banquet in the Eucharist at Mass. On the surface it may seem to pale in comparison with the sumptuous food and drink we find on this earth, nonetheless with faith we realize that the love it expresses is worth more than all the pleasures we could ever find here. The taste of freedom from suffering and pain, from want and need, from desire itself, should fill us with a longing for the true eternal banquet. We should be driven to spend every moment preparing our wedding garment, adorning it with our acts of sacrifice and love, that we may be welcomed into that timeless joy.