Daily Archives: 22 August, 2024

The way to the Banquet. Reflection for marriages. Matthew 22:1-14

Invite to the feast whomever you find.

From the Gospel according to Matthew Mt 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the 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 the king 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. He 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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

The way to the Banquet.

The marriage of the Son of God has already taken place, and you and I are invited to the wedding banquet that will be celebrated in Heaven. Will we attend?

Lord, to get there, I must first follow the same path that You took, until I give myself completely to my wife. I could choose other paths, other ways of living marriage, but I would never get to Your great banquet, because I would not be prepared to attend dressed in the appropriate attire: conjugal charity.


Applied to married life:

Phill: Sometimes I have the feeling that God is constantly watching over me. Things happen to me that cannot be a coincidence, it seems to me that He speaks to me in every situation… or in the Gospel.

Rachel: And what do you do about it?

Paco: I don’t know what to do.

Raquel: You have to find out, the Lord is calling you to something great.

Phill: What do I have to do?

Rachel: Let us approach Him together, let us consecrate ourselves to Him, let us put our lives in His hands, let us welcome every situation as if it came from Him…

(Phill reluctantly ended up doing it)

Phill: Now I understand everything. I was a dead man in life, and by feeding my soul, I have discovered the beauty of our vocation, of my life. Now I find meaning in almost everything that happens.

Rachel: The Lord never disappoints. And you shall see greater things…


Mother,

I understand the pain of Your Heart, when You have prepared an banquet for us and we do not strive to respond to the Lord’s call to holiness, out of laziness or for a thousand excuses that we can think of. We know that God is great and something great awaits us. We do not want to miss it. Praise the Lord. Amen.