Book of Isaiah 25,6-10a. On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken. On that day it will be said: "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!" For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
Psalms 23(22)
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths for His names's sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.
You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for years to come.
Letter to the Philippians 4,12-14.19-20. I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me. Still, it was kind of you to share in my distress. My God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father, glory forever and ever. Amen.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint 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 he 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."
ANGELUS 11 October 2020 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good afternoon!
With the narrative of the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, in today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mt 22:1-14), Jesus outlines the plan that God envisaged for humanity. The king who “who gave a marriage feast for his son” (v. 2) is the image of the Father who prepared for the entire human family a wonderful celebration of love and communion around his only begotten Son. Twice the king sends his servants to call the invited guests, but they refuse; they do not want to go to the feast because they have other things to think about: fields and business. We often also put our interests and material things ahead of the Lord who calls us — and he calls us to a feast. But the king in the parable does not want the hall to remain empty, because he wants to offer the treasures of his kingdom. So he tells his servants: “Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (v. 9). This is how God reacts: when he is rejected, rather than giving up, he starts over and asks that all those found at the thoroughfares be called, excluding no one. No one is excluded from the house of God.
The original term that Matthew the Evangelist uses refers to the limits of the roads, or those points at which the city streets end and the paths begin that lead to the area of the countryside, outside the residential area, where life is precarious. It is to this humanity of the thoroughfares that the king in the parable sends his servants, in the certainty of finding people willing to sit at the table. Thus the banquet hall is filled with the “excluded”, those who are “outside”, those who never seemed worthy to partake in a feast, in a wedding banquet. In fact, the master, the king, tells the messengers: “Call everyone, both good and bad. Everyone!”. God even calls those who are bad. “No, I am bad; I have done many [bad things]...”. He calls you: “Come, come, come!”. And Jesus went to lunch with the publicans, who were public sinners; they were the bad ones. God is not afraid of our spirits wounded by many cruelties, because he loves us; he invites us. And the Church is called to reach the daily thoroughfares, that is, the geographic and existential peripheries of humanity, those places on the margins, those situations where the hopeless remnants of humanity camp out and live. It is a matter of not settling for comforts and the customary ways of evangelization and witnessing to charity, but rather of opening the doors of our hearts and our communities to everyone, because the Gospel is not reserved to a select few. Even those on the margins, even those who are rejected and scorned by society, are considered by God to be worthy of his love. He prepares his banquet for everyone: the just and sinners, good and bad, intelligent and uneducated.
Yesterday evening, I was able to make a phone call to an elderly Italian priest, a missionary in Brazil since youth, but always working with the excluded, with the poor. And he lives his old age in peace: he burned up his life with the poor. This is our Mother Church; this is God’s messenger who goes to the crossroads.
-->However, the Lord places one condition: to wear a wedding garment. Let us return to the parable. When the hall is full, the king arrives and greets the latest guests, but he sees one of them without a wedding garment, that kind of little cape that each guest received as a gift at the entrance. The people went as they were dressed, as they were able to dress; they were not wearing gala attire. But they were given a type of capelet, a gift, at the entrance. That man, having rejected the free gift, excluded himself: thus, the king could do nothing but throw him out. This man accepted the invitation but then decided that it meant nothing to him: he was a self-sufficient person; he had no desire to change or to allow the Lord to change him. The wedding garment — this capelet — symbolizes the mercy that God freely gives us, namely, grace. Without grace we cannot take a step forward in Christian life. Everything is grace. It is not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord; one must be open to a journey of conversion, which changes the heart. The garment of mercy, which God offers us unceasingly, is the free gift of his love; it is precisely grace. And it demands to be welcomed with astonishment and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for having given me this gift”.
May Mary Most Holy help us to imitate the servants in the Gospel parable by emerging from our frames of mind and from our narrow views, proclaiming to everyone that the Lord invites us to his banquet, in order to offer us his saving grace, to give us his gift.
FAUSTI - "My friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?", asks the king to one who has responded to the invitation to the wedding, but does not have a wedding robe. Those who participate in the wedding of the Son are the Christians who have welcomed the Messiah. It is not enough, however, to have said yes: not those who say "Lord Lord" will enter the Kingdom, but those who do the Father's will (7:21). In our midst, as well as in us, there is always a darnel in addition to wheat. What we read about murderous winegrowers also is valid for us. Biblical narratives are not a window on the courtyard of the past, to see what happened then. They are rather a mirror, which shows what is happening now in the reader. The story, like a mirror, permits us to see what we would never see otherwise: our face (Jc 1,23-25). This parable is a development of the previous one, where it is said that the same fate is for anyone who is confronted with the discarded stone. What Israel has done, so does the Church. It is a call to responsibility: to be part of God's people was not, is not and never will be a talisman of salvation. On the contrary, salvation comes from recognizing that we are equal to our fathers. It is not enough to say : "We have Abraham for a father"; we must bear fruits worthy of conversion, knowing that the Lord can make of our heart of stone a heart of son. On one condition, however . That we recognize that we are like the brother who says yes and does not, to become like the one who knows how to say no and then repents of it. To be called and to have answered does not mean to be automatically saved. We are all called; "chosen" is one who freely chooses to respond to the call not with words, but with facts and in truth, renewed when the banquet is ready, followed by rejection: it is the synthesis of the previous story that tells the story of the people of Israel from the exodus until the time of His Messiah. There is a new invitation, made again to Israel, which is that of the Apostles after the death of Jesus; in it is repeated the rejection, indifferent or violent. This rejection of one part of Israel becomes an opportunity of salvation for the others. The invitation is addressed to everyone, until the banquet hall is full. These diners constitute the Church, where, however, as everywhere, there are good and bad ones. The second part reminds us that in order to be part of the people who welcome the discarded stone, we must first accept to be among those who reject it: we are like the one without the wedding robe. Only in this way can we be among those who, listening to Peter who says: "That Jesus whom you have crucified is Christ and Lord". ...they feel their hearts pierced and convert themselves. We must experience that the Lord has come to save sinners, "of whom I am the first", as Paul says (1 Tim 1:15). Then we know the love of the Son who died for us, because we live of Him : we participate in the banquet with the wedding robe.
Book of Isaiah
RispondiElimina25,6-10a.
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations;
he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.
On that day it will be said: "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the LORD for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
Psalms 23(22)
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths
for His names's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
Letter
to the Philippians 4,12-14.19-20.
I know indeed how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need.
I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.
Still, it was kind of you to share in my distress.
My God will fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father, glory forever and ever. Amen.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint 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 he 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."
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 11 October 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good afternoon!
With the narrative of the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, in today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mt 22:1-14), Jesus outlines the plan that God envisaged for humanity. The king who “who gave a marriage feast for his son” (v. 2) is the image of the Father who prepared for the entire human family a wonderful celebration of love and communion around his only begotten Son. Twice the king sends his servants to call the invited guests, but they refuse; they do not want to go to the feast because they have other things to think about: fields and business. We often also put our interests and material things ahead of the Lord who calls us — and he calls us to a feast. But the king in the parable does not want the hall to remain empty, because he wants to offer the treasures of his kingdom. So he tells his servants: “Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (v. 9). This is how God reacts: when he is rejected, rather than giving up, he starts over and asks that all those found at the thoroughfares be called, excluding no one. No one is excluded from the house of God.
The original term that Matthew the Evangelist uses refers to the limits of the roads, or those points at which the city streets end and the paths begin that lead to the area of the countryside, outside the residential area, where life is precarious. It is to this humanity of the thoroughfares that the king in the parable sends his servants, in the certainty of finding people willing to sit at the table. Thus the banquet hall is filled with the “excluded”, those who are “outside”, those who never seemed worthy to partake in a feast, in a wedding banquet. In fact, the master, the king, tells the messengers: “Call everyone, both good and bad. Everyone!”. God even calls those who are bad. “No, I am bad; I have done many [bad things]...”. He calls you: “Come, come, come!”. And Jesus went to lunch with the publicans, who were public sinners; they were the bad ones. God is not afraid of our spirits wounded by many cruelties, because he loves us; he invites us. And the Church is called to reach the daily thoroughfares, that is, the geographic and existential peripheries of humanity, those places on the margins, those situations where the hopeless remnants of humanity camp out and live. It is a matter of not settling for comforts and the customary ways of evangelization and witnessing to charity, but rather of opening the doors of our hearts and our communities to everyone, because the Gospel is not reserved to a select few. Even those on the margins, even those who are rejected and scorned by society, are considered by God to be worthy of his love. He prepares his banquet for everyone: the just and sinners, good and bad, intelligent and uneducated.
Yesterday evening, I was able to make a phone call to an elderly Italian priest, a missionary in Brazil since youth, but always working with the excluded, with the poor. And he lives his old age in peace: he burned up his life with the poor. This is our Mother Church; this is God’s messenger who goes to the crossroads.
-->However, the Lord places one condition: to wear a wedding garment. Let us return to the parable. When the hall is full, the king arrives and greets the latest guests, but he sees one of them without a wedding garment, that kind of little cape that each guest received as a gift at the entrance. The people went as they were dressed, as they were able to dress; they were not wearing gala attire. But they were given a type of capelet, a gift, at the entrance. That man, having rejected the free gift, excluded himself: thus, the king could do nothing but throw him out. This man accepted the invitation but then decided that it meant nothing to him: he was a self-sufficient person; he had no desire to change or to allow the Lord to change him. The wedding garment — this capelet — symbolizes the mercy that God freely gives us, namely, grace. Without grace we cannot take a step forward in Christian life. Everything is grace. It is not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord; one must be open to a journey of conversion, which changes the heart. The garment of mercy, which God offers us unceasingly, is the free gift of his love; it is precisely grace. And it demands to be welcomed with astonishment and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for having given me this gift”.
EliminaMay Mary Most Holy help us to imitate the servants in the Gospel parable by emerging from our frames of mind and from our narrow views, proclaiming to everyone that the Lord invites us to his banquet, in order to offer us his saving grace, to give us his gift.
FAUSTI - "My friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?", asks the king to one who has responded to the invitation to the wedding, but does not have a wedding robe. Those who participate in the wedding of the Son are the Christians who have welcomed the Messiah. It is not enough, however, to have said yes: not those who say "Lord Lord" will enter the Kingdom, but those who do the Father's will (7:21). In our midst, as well as in us, there is always a darnel in addition to wheat. What we read about murderous winegrowers also is valid for us.
RispondiEliminaBiblical narratives are not a window on the courtyard of the past, to see what happened then. They are rather a mirror, which shows what is happening now in the reader.
The story, like a mirror, permits us to see what we would never see otherwise: our face (Jc 1,23-25).
This parable is a development of the previous one, where it is said that the same fate is for anyone who is confronted with the discarded stone. What Israel has done, so does the Church.
It is a call to responsibility:
to be part of God's people was not, is not and never will be a talisman of salvation.
On the contrary, salvation comes from recognizing that we are equal to our fathers.
It is not enough to say : "We have Abraham for a father"; we must bear fruits worthy of conversion, knowing that the Lord can make of our heart of stone a heart of son.
On one condition, however . That we recognize that we are like the brother who says yes and does not, to become like the one who knows how to say no and then repents of it.
To be called and to have answered does not mean to be automatically saved.
We are all called; "chosen" is one who freely chooses to respond to the call not with words, but with facts and in truth, renewed when the banquet is ready, followed by rejection: it is the synthesis of the previous story that tells the story of the people of Israel from the exodus until the time of His Messiah.
There is a new invitation, made again to Israel, which is that of the Apostles after the death of Jesus; in it is repeated the rejection, indifferent or violent. This rejection of one part of Israel becomes an opportunity of salvation for the others. The invitation is addressed to everyone, until the banquet hall is full.
These diners constitute the Church, where, however, as everywhere, there are good and bad ones.
The second part reminds us that in order to be part of the people who welcome the discarded stone, we must first accept to be among those who reject it: we are like the one without the wedding robe.
Only in this way can we be among those who, listening to Peter who says: "That Jesus whom you have crucified is Christ and Lord". ...they feel their hearts pierced and convert themselves.
We must experience that the Lord has come to save sinners, "of whom I am the first", as Paul says (1 Tim 1:15). Then we know the love of the Son who died for us, because
we live of Him : we participate in the banquet with the wedding robe.