St. John Nepomucene

Responding to the Invitations that God gives Us

Jesus told a parable about a king who was throwing a marriage feast for his son.  The king sent our invitations to all his friends and other people of prominence throughout the kingdom.  But they did not come.  Some did not even bother to respond to his invitation.  Others made excuses.  The king sent out a second invitation.  “Look,” he said almost pleading.  “The dinner is ready.  My oxen and fat calves are killed.  Come to the marriage feast.”  But those invited made light of the invitations.  Some even roughed up the king’s servants who brought the invitation.

When the king saw the way his intended guests responded to his invitation, he was furious.  Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited are not worthy.  Go therefore into the streets and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.  And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding was filled with guests.”

God is always sending us invitations.  We are called to be receptive to the invitations.  I am grateful that you responded to the invitation to come to Mass today.  It is good to take at least five minutes every day to listen to God in silence.  Ask God, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”  Then become aware of the intuitions that come to your mind or the promptings that come to your heart.  Then act on those intuitions and those promptings.

How do we interpret the throwing out of the wedding guest without the proper garment?  The king would have provided the proper attire as far as wedding garments for those who came.  This individual refused to put on one of those wedding garments.  We could say he was thrown out because he did not have the proper disposition.

We come here to Mass.  We responded to the initial invitation to be here.  Later we will hear the reflection on our financial situation.  We are a stewardship parish.  Grateful for God’s Blessings, we respond by giving of our time, talent and treasure.  I am grateful for the generosity of the past and your support for our parish.  As we face rising costs, the invitation before us is to increase our offertory contributions.  If we are not giving anything, the invitation is to start giving something.  Winston Churchill summed it up by saying, “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”    May we invest our time, talent and treasure in building up our parish to build the Kingdom of God.

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