August 21, 2025

PRI Reflections on Scripture | Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope

7 minutes

Gospel

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables

saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king

who gave a wedding feast for his son.

He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,

but they refused to come.

A second time he sent other servants, saying,

‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,

my calves and fattened cattle are killed,

and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’

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.

The king was enraged and sent his troops,

destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,

but those who were invited were not worthy to come.

Go out, therefore, into the main roads

and invite to the feast whomever you find.’

The servants went out into the streets

and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,

and the hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to meet the guests

he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.

He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it

that you came in here without a wedding garment?’

But he was reduced to silence.

Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,

and cast him into the darkness outside,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’

Many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Reflection

What Jesus is trying to awaken us to is, there are two things that are required of us. One, which seems so simple, is to accept the invitation to enter the work of the Kingdom of God. Allow God's love to enter into us and celebrate union, the marriage of humanity and divinity. And some just aren't interested, and some actually work against the whole message.

But even though you were invited without any necessarily credentials to get to this wedding, Jesus reminds us that the wedding invitation itself is a transformative invitation, and the person who receives it should be changed. And that's why we have this interesting part of the story, where he throws out somebody who was grabbed from the streets and came in and didn't have a chance to get his wedding garment on, was rejected.

Closing Prayer

Father, your attentiveness to calling us into an awareness that we do not have on our own and that only you can give us, is a sign of something so deep and so powerful that what we want is to receive the message of invitation and let it change us. Let us not get in the way by trying to become someone or do something ourselves. It's all about a gift, but it has to be received. Open our hearts to receptivity. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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