28th Sunday (Ordinary Time – A)

This is a slideshow presentation based on Matthew 22:1-14, the Gospel reading for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A). You may embed this slideshow into your own blog/website or download the original PowerPoint/Pdf file so you may use it in your liturgical celebrations.

Year A: 28th Sunday Ordinary Time (Matthew 22:1-14)

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READING: Matthew 22:1-14

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, maltreated 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

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. Have you ever planned a big party and sent out the invitations to your friends, but no one showed up? In Jesus’s parable, a king threw a big party for his son’s wedding, but none of the people he invited showed up. Of course the king got angry and ordered his servants to go to the main streets to invite everyone to the banquet. The servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the wedding hall was full. In those days, wedding robes are given to guests for free. That explains why the king got angry when he saw a man not wearing a wedding robe. So the king had him thrown out.

By refusing to attend the banquet, the invited guests did not only disrespect the king, but also rejected his authority over them. Accepting God’s invitation to be intimate with Him is of supreme importance that it should relativize all our other plans and concerns. And we need to bear in mind that God invites us not because we are worthy but because God loves us and wants us to be with Him.

Just like the man who did not wear a wedding robe, there are those of us who think that all we have to do is to show up. We need to be “properly dressed”, we need to become like Christ, whose only concern is to do the Father’s will. We need to live our lives in accordance with the Father’s will: love our neighbors and help those in need. If we do not accept the Father’s love and reject his will, we will have no place with him in his heavenly banquet.