Rev.
Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.
DO NOT
BE SO BUSY TO HONOUR THE INVITATION TO GOD’S HEAVENLY BANQUET
In our
hymn book some hymns are based on some of the parables in the
scriptures, one of them entitled 'I can not come to the banquet, composed by
Miriam Therese Winter gives us the summary of our Gospel passage today and the
first and last stanzas of this hymn says:
1. A
certain man had a feast on his fine estate in town,
He
laid a festive table and wore a wedding gown
He
sent invitations to his neighbours far and wide
But
when the meal was ready, each one of them replied!
CHORUS:
I can
not come!
I
cannot come to the banquet, don't trouble me now,
I have
married a wife, I have bought me a cow,
I have
fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum,
Pray
hold me excused, I cannot come!
2. Now
God has written a lesson for the rest of mankind,
If
we're slow in responding, He may leave us behind,
He's
preparing a banquet for that great and glorious day,
When
the Lord and master call us, be certain not to say.
In
this life, we are so busy with so many things, that if care is not taken we
will miss out on the essence of our existence. Each day, the streets are full
of people struggling and bobbling, the markets are full of people buying and
selling and people rising very early in the morning and coming back late at
night. This shows us how much effort people put in every day just to earn their
daily bread, I thought if we could sincerely put in such an amount of effort in
order to catch up with the train of eternal life which God is inviting us in
today’s Gospel passage.
Today,
from the parable of the marriage feast, the Lord offers us again an invitation
to the banquet of heaven. An invitation which is God's free act of kindness, as
He wishes to dine with us. No one deserves it anyway, and He is not obliged to
invite us nor are we compared to honour his invitation. Hence in the parable,
those who think that they deserve to be invited were too busy to enter the
banquet hall. But the poor in spirit and the humble who knew that the love God
has for them is completely gratuitous accepted his invitation with joy.
Thus,
today we are called not to be too busy to come to our heavenly banquet. For
God’s banquet is his Church, good and bad, saints and sinners are invited, for
the Church is made up of saints and sinners. The bad are expected to become
good while sinners are expected to repent and put on a new garment of holiness
and love. As Christians, today we are reminded of our wedding garment, the new
suit we put on on the day of baptism. Therefore, we cannot go on wearing the
old garments of sins of pride, greed, adultery, fornication, theft,
drunkenness, selfishness and unforgivingness which will throw us into the dark,
where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, for many are called, but few
are chosen.
Dear
friends, we are called today to put on the wedding garment of love, and holiness
and open the doors of our hearts to the poor, the marginalized and those
rejected by society. And God through
prophet Isaiah in our first reading, promised to gather us together from all
the foreign countries and bring us home to his Holy mountain, where the Lord
of hosts will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food.
On
this mountain, he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the
shroud enwrapping all nations, he will destroy death forever. The Lord will
wipe away the tears from every cheek; he will take away his people’s shame
everywhere on earth. And St. Paul in our second reading encouraged us to be
disposed to cope with whatever situation we find ourselves in now, for God in
return knows how to fulfil all our needs according to his riches in glory
through Christ Jesus our Lord.
LET US
PRAY: Heavenly Father, today we are reminded of the invitation to your heavenly
banquet. As we honour this invitation, help us to put on the wedding garment of
love, holiness, forgiveness, and mercy which we embraced in our baptism. We ask
this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a blessed Sunday celebration.
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