Gospel: August 22, 2024
20th Week in Ordinary Time
Psalter: Week 4 / (White)
The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 51: 12-13, 14-15, 18-19
I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.
1st Reading: Ezekiel 36: 23-28
I will make known the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations because of you; and they will know that I am Yahweh, when I show them my holiness among you.
For I will gather you from all the nations and bring you back to your own land. Then I shall pour pure water over you and you shall be made clean—cleansed from the defilement of all your idols. I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I shall put my spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees and keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you shall be my people and I will be your God.
Gospel: Matthew 22: 1-14
Jesus continued speaking to them in parables: “This story throws light on the kingdom of heaven: A king gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call the invited guests to the banquet, but the guests refused to come.
Again, he sent other servants, instructing them to say to the invited guests, ‘I have prepared a banquet, slaughtered my fattened calves and other animals, and now, everything is ready. Come to the wedding!’ But they paid no attention and went away, some to their farms, and some to their work. Others seized the servants of the king, insulted them and killed them.
The king was furious. He sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is prepared, but the invited guests were not worthy. Go instead to the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’
The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, good and bad alike, so that the hall was filled with guests.
The king came in to see the wedding guests, and he noticed a man not wearing a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in without the wedding clothes?’ But the man remained silent. So the king said to his servants, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Reflection:
“Many are called, but few are chosen.”
We can only be truly happy working in the Lord’s vineyard when our life is being conformed to the values of his kingdom. God invites us to enter into his kingdom. However, our entrance into it presupposes our exercise of the kingdom values. Today’s Gospel puts emphasis on the challenge to enter into God’s kingdom while striving to conform our life to a life worthy of the kingdom of heaven. It tells of a king who offered a wedding banquet for his son. All those who were invited refused the invitation. The king was angry.
Eventually he gave an order to invite those who were in the main streets because those who were first invited were not worthy. Thus, the hall was filled with invited guests, good and bad alike. When the king came to meet the invited guests, he saw a man who was not wearing a wedding garment. He asked the man why he was not wearing a wedding garment. The man remained silent. The king ordered his servants to bind the man and throw him outside. He was thrown because he failed to conform to what the occasion required.
