Today's gospel will never make sense to my people who live in rural areas. People do not need an invitation to any festive occasion. As soon as they hear there is a party going on and there is a portion of food and drink, they will just show up. Then who would be crazy enough to turn down an invitation to a royal wedding? But then, when I think about the gospel and think about my own life and my relationship with God, I find that I was often stupid to turn down God’s invitation. And I believe that each of us knows the moments when we not only reject what is good but also cannot recognize it. God continually calls us as individuals and as members of the Body of Christ, as members of this community gathered around this table of the Lord, to a deeper and better life. His call is always gentle, very persistent, and very real. We all hear it from time to time and mostly come from our depths. However, there are many ways to decline this invitation. God invites me to pray all the time, but I often decline the invitation because I am too tired right now. Jesus Christ invites us to meet him here more often in this church, but at the last moment there is always something in the way and I choose not to come. God invites me to love my neighbor, but the neighborhood is dangerous. I cannot stop here and help anyone. The Spirit of God invites honesty, but I often refuse by apologizing for my dishonest actions and telling myself that everyone does the same thing. God invites me to spend more time with my family, children, and church, but I need this overtime pay for my next vacation expenses. I could go on and on. Each of us, if we got involved, could make a pretty long list of things that we know we should or shouldn’t do in our hearts that we don’t want to look at. And we have no shortage of excuses, many of which are extremely plausible. They jump up in our defense like over-excited guards. Defense, excuses, evasive maneuvers! How well do we know them? But this is a dangerous road. Hence, it is important to note that the people who turned down the wedding invitation did so not for bad reasons, but perfectly good and reasonable reasons. All perfectly good jobs for themselves. But that is exactly what makes them so dangerous and stumbles over our good relationships with God and others. And as a Christian, I believe that the greatest danger to us is not that we leave God and turn to evil, but that we ignore his invitation. If we prefer to devote all our energies to good causes of choice, we are ignoring God's invitation to something infinitely deeper and better. That is why Jesus articulates the Father's vision for us today: a “banquet” at which everyone is respected and honored for who they are and what kindness they bring to the king's table, be it the “table” of the classroom, the clinic, the playground, the house or the community. If we are to remain true to God's vision, God's compassion must change the perspective of our hearts and allow us to see beyond our reasonable excuses. Hence, in the first reading, Isaiah proclaims the goodness of God preparing a banquet for all his people on the holy mountain. And the banquet symbolizes God's closeness to us and the celebration of the ultimate victory over sin, suffering, and death. This festival is not only for the Israelites but for all people. God wants to invite everyone into his kingdom without excluding anyone. The Lord comes to bring comfort to those who mourn and to give new vision to those who are blinded by the calamities that afflict them. The call of the Christian is the call to hope in the Lord who cares for all that concerns us and will lead us to the new joy that comes from being with the Lord. That is, if we ignore God's invitation, it means that we are indifferent. To benefit from the feast, one must wear the wedding dress of conversion. But how do you go about converting those who are indifferent or those who, like the religious leaders of Christ's time, believe that they need no conversion? How do I convert myself to changing my indifference? How do I avoid turning down God's invitation in my daily life?
By Fr. Ouwakpare Victorin Oussoi, SVD.
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