He replied to him,
"A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,
he dispatched his servant to say to those invited,
'Come, everything is now ready.'
We have been invited to dine in the Kingdom of God. Yet how do we prioritize that invitation? Even those of us who taste the heavenly food weekly or even more often, how frequently do we recognize that reality of what we receive? Is it not usually more a matter of fitting in an obligation we know we ought to fulfill? Isn't there often much on our schedule for a given day that captures our attention and imagination more than the mass? And even when we are within the feast itself is not our mind drawn away to other seemingly more pressing concerns?
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,
'I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.'
We do seem to choose to prefer the mundane and quotidian over the celebration and freedom that is meant to characterize the banquet. We excuse, if not our lack of attendance, then at least our lack of attention to go and dwell on things which seem to us to be urgent.
And another said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;
I ask you, consider me excused.'
We imagine that once we tie up all the loose ends we will be ready to enter into the feast unencumbered. But of course tying one loose end only seems to loosen another or to reveal another in need of tightening. It ultimately never ends and is a project we can't hope to complete. But is it even responsible to set such things aside for the sake of the invitation we have received from God? Won't everything collapse around us if we take our eyes off of it, even for a moment?
Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.
The one who dines in the Kingdom of God does not attend in virtue of her efforts but rather on the basis of blessing. This blessing enables her to see the surpassing transcendent value of the feast which in turn puts all other temporal concerns in their proper perspective. Unless such concerns admit of the freedom of the feast, allow for it, and lead to it, they are not simply work, but a sort of slavery. We are meant to be more than the sum of our work, more than the list of tasks we can complete in a given day. We are meant to realize blessings so great that may simply exist, enjoying a feast, together with our Lord.
Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.
It is often those with fewer illusions about the world who most readily recognize what is on offer in the heavenly banquet. It is they who know best that they can't earn their existence by the merit of their work. They are therefore the most able to receive freely from the grace of God. And when they receive that grace they are the most thankful for it. Most of us display a much greater indifference to the heavenly, a much more profound addiction to the temporal, and a resulting lack of thanksgiving for what grace we do receive. Let us look to those who appear to be the lowest and the least as our examples so that we too may learn to delight in dining in the Kingdom of God.
Go out to the highways and hedgerows
and make people come in that my home may be filled.
The master desires that this feast may be shared by as many as possible. Yet we find that the feast on offer in the Church is poorly attended, that there is still much room to fill. As we grow in our own discovery of the value of the invitation let us also be among those sent by the master to go out and share it. Clearly, it is meant for everyone. Each of us has different graces that help us to reveal this invitation in a different light. No one's contribute is negligible.
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us exercise them
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