AN INVITATION

 

AN INVITATION

A little girl was excited about her First Communion. A pretty white frock was made for her and there would be a party for all her friends afterwards. Being a little girl conscious of her appearance, she took ages dressing and her mother fussed that they would be late for church. The little girl suggested skipping ‘the church bit’ and going straight to the party.

Such honesty! She had her priorities and ‘the church bit’ was not one of them. When the scriptures attempt to describe the ‘exultation and joy of all peoples’, they fall back on the image of a party. ‘There will be rich food and choice wines’, Isaiah tells us. It is virtually impossible to describe the joy of heaven. Even Paul was at a loss; ‘the human heart cannot conceive what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9).

As we approach the closing weeks of the Church’s year (end of November), we are introduced to the message of completion and fulfilment. Life may be extremely messy – wars on the international level, frustrations on the personal – but it will all be ‘fulfilled’, done, completed – the word of Jesus as he died on the cross (Jn 19:30).

Tomorrow (16 October), we will bury Jesuit Fr Oskar Wermter, a prolific writer who was involved in organisations too numerous to mention. He was also a pastoral priest who served in urban and rural parishes throughout his more than fifty years in Zimbabwe. But his early life was traumatic, messy, starting with having to leave home and flee three times before he was six years old. His last years too were painful as he suffered from a succession of illnesses that left him discomforted and frustrated.

Oskar did not skip ‘the church bit’ but embraced it fully with all its lights and shadows. Isaiah’s banquet is now his and we ‘cannot conceive’ what it is like. Matthew takes up Isaiah’s banquet and emphasises it goes with an invitation. But he tells us, ‘Those who had been invited’ ignored it. In fact, they repeatedly turned on the messengers who brought the invitations, beat them up and even killed some.   

The invitation stands. It runs through the whole Old Testament and is renewed in the words of John the Baptiser at the Jordan. It is repeated again and again by Jesus. Yet people just turned away – and they continue to do so. They want to skip ‘the church bit’ which involves commitment and frustration. Yet it is the only way, acknowledged or not, of getting to the party.

15 October 2023         Sunday 28A                Is 25:6-10        Phil 4:12…20      Mt 22:1-14