A lot of people will say that the reason they don’t come to Mass is because it is boring and they don’t get anything out of it. Today’s First reading and the Gospel give us an insight into what the Eucharist is all about. It is a promise of what is to come; it is the reality of a God who loves us so much that he died and rose and continue to be present to us and to feed us until the day the promise is fulfilled in heaven. This is the wedding feast that the Gospel is talking about. This is the mountain of Isaiah . Take a few minutes and think about that……we have been invited here by the Lord. That invitation began on the day of our baptism. On that day, Jesus invited us to his wedding feast. He gave us the garment of righteousness and faith. On that day, we were enlighten by Christ and given new vision to see the Kingdom in our midst. On that day, we were given a mandate to go the highways and by ways of our time and invite all, not just a chosen few, to the wedding feast of the Lamb. I always thought the guy at the end of the Gospel got a bum rap. The King can’t find people to the wedding feast. He invites all these people and then throws this guy out because he isn’t dressed right. My thought is he probably didn’t have any good clothes; after all he was poor. However, some of the scholars tells us that in the time of Jesus, the host would have provided a wedding garment to each guest. Now, it makes sense. The man choose to not use a precious gift. His choice was what got him kicked out. Of course, this is all symbolic. What we wear to Mass, how we look, if we have tattoos, if we are a baby crying, a teen who would rather be home in bed on a Sunday morning or a older person who walks slow, if we are dealing with depression or schizophrenia, if we are poor or rich, gay or straight, the invitation is the same. Come and eat with me. Come and I will give you life. Come and share the banquet of my Love. It is our choice to respond to this gift and promise. This is the wedding feast of the Lamb who took away our sins and died for us and who continues to be the Holy Food and Drink of the altar. It is the Jesus who died and rose who comes us, and abides with us in the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle. This is also the foretaste of what is to come. This is the promise of the heavenly wedding feast. Every Sunday we glimpse of what life will be when we die. Clothed in the glory of heaven, invited to our place at the heavenly table, we will praise God for all eternity and the angels and saints and our beloved dead who wait for us to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb This feast and promise is enough to for me to keep coming even when it might seem boring, or I get distracted (and it happens to me too), when I would rather be somewhere else….I need the Holy Food and Drink to live and I need to see the promise of what is to come. I hope you do, too.
O Divine Father, you have invited us to the wedding feast of heaven. You have clothed us with garment of salvation and grace. Help each of us to grow in love of this awesome gift. Give us the grace to see beyond our sins and failings and see your Mercy made real in this Holy Sacrament Give us the eyes of faith to see beyond what we do here and catch a glimpse of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb Lord Jesus, walk with your brothers and sisters who wear the wedding garment of the Kingdom. Amen
