Join the Wedding Feast

In this Sunday’s Gospel passage, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a wedding feast. However, the Gospel warns that accepting or rejecting the invitation is a personal decision, and God does not force anyone to attend. In the parable, several guests chose not to attend, rejecting the invitation because they believed they had more important or better things to do.

No one thought the wedding was sad or boring; they simply “didn’t care.” We distance ourselves from God’s love and from other people not out of malice, but because we want our own security, comfort, and pleasure.

When we choose to pursue benefits, pleasures, and things that supposedly make us “happy,” we fail to recognize God’s call. We make time for all other activities—work, socializing, leisure trips, meals, games—but not for the Church, prayer, and the Word of God because we don’t care.

Furthermore, when everything depends on the self, we become rigid and malevolent. The guests were so self-centered that they insulted and even killed those who delivered the invitation.

Yet even after repeated rejections, the king persists; he doesn’t postpone the feast. He continues inviting and including even more people. Despite injustice and rejection, God responds with even greater love. Despite our “no” to his invitation, God continues to take the initiative time and time again. This is how love works; this is how we defeat evil.

The Gospel emphasizes one final point: the essential dress code for guests. Responding to an invitation means dressing appropriately and cultivating the habit of living out love each day. We cannot say “Lord, Lord” without living according to God’s will. We need to clothe ourselves in his love each day and renew our commitment to God daily.

At Baptism we receive the white garment, a symbol that we are clothed in Christ and belong to Christ. Let us ask Jesus for the grace to always choose and wear this garment daily and keep it clean by loving Him and others.

May the Lord always give you his peace.

Fr. Lalo Jara, OFM
Pastor, Mission San Luis Rey Parish