my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
The feast is ready. We are invited to the banquet of God. It is more than all we ask or imagine (cf. Eph. 3:20).
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined (cf. Isa. 25:6).
It is not the same sort of meal we are used to eating. This is the bread which satisfies. "Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst"" (cf. Joh. 6:35).
And yet we still respond like the invited guests of the parable.
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.
We imagine that we have more important things to do. Note that we don't necessarily go away to things which we imagine to be more fun, more entertaining, or more fulfilling. We go to the work which seems immediate. It isn't really what we want to do. But we perceive it as what we have to do. We need to adjust our priorities. We need to understand that this banquet to which we are invited is more important than anything else in our lives. When, on pain of death, celebration of the Eucharist was forbidden in 304 AD an individual named Emeritus was asked by the Proconsul why he and his fellows disobeyed the emperor and met anyway. His answer? "Without the Sunday Eucharist we have no power. We cannot live without joining together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. We would lack the strength to face our daily problems and not to succumb."
The banquet to which we are invited is the only source of life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (cf. Joh. 6:53-54).
All of our other priorities and necessities pale by comparison. They yield temporary results which, while possibly important, only have meaning to the degree to which they relate us to the eternal. This is why our lives must be marked by love. Love relates all we do to eternity. But love itself requires constant replenishment from its true source, as St. Bernard reminds us. "Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it."
Let's not ignore the invitation to the feast. We need it more than we realize. But there is another risk we face even if we do come to the feast. We are so filled and strengthened that we might go off and start our own vows and projects and assume that they are sanctioned by God. This is like how Jephthah makes his own rash vow in response to the victory the LORD gives him. The victory in no way sanctions the vow. We always risk endorsing our own projects and ideas in the periods following consolation and blessing from God. It's as if we try coming up with ideas to keep feeling the blessings which are actually gifts from God. The danger is different but the defense is the same. Let's not go off our own ways. Let's stick close to God and what he wants to do in us. Let's take up the invitation to attend the feast and then go forth not as we determine ourselves but instead as we are called.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me.
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
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