GOSPEL POWER | AUGUST 19, 2021 - Thursday - 20th Week in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Jgs 11:29-39a 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 40 – Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will. 

Gospel: Mt 22:1-14 1 

Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:  “The kingdom  of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet  for his son.  He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited  to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.  Again he  sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look,  I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been  slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’   But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another  to his business,  while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them,  and killed them.  The king was enraged. He sent his troops,  destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.  Then he said to  his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.   Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to  the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and  gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding  hall was filled with guests. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a  man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to  him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And  he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him  hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there  will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few  are chosen.

Reflection:

Love is transformative. God loves us just as we are, with all  our sinful tendencies and flaws of character. But that love  will not leave us in that state of immaturity, but will mold us  into what we ought to be. God’s loving initiative awaits a response. In  the parable, this is to be understood as the king’s provision of festal  garments for the hastily invited guests. Anyone who wants to come to  the banquet must wear the clothes provided for the occasion. No one  has any excuse to come in shabby attire. This explains the puzzling  reaction of the king to the man who entered the banquet-hall  inappropriately dressed. Such violation of the dress code manifests  a shameless disregard of the king’s generosity, and it is no different  from the refusal of the original guest.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, may we never waste the graces given us to respond to God’s  loving initiative. Amen.