Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish

FR MICHAEL BIBLICAL IMAGERY

(Fr Michael Boakye Yeboah: Vice Rector of St Gregory Seminary, Kumasi-Ghana)

THE KING’S INVITATION

            Matthew uses this account to educate us on the custom of Jewish invitations. In the Jewish culture when the invitations of a great feast, like a wedding feast, were sent out, the time was not stated; and when everything was ready, the servants were sent out with a final summons to tell the guests to come. So, the king in this parable had long ago sent out his invitations; but it was not until everything was prepared that the final summons was issued – and insultingly refused. Now let us go into the analysis of this biblical account.

            God the Father is the king in the Gospel. He prepares a wedding dinner for his son. In the first reading this meal is portrayed as a feast of joy in the messianic end-time, because not only Israel but all the nations are invited to it. The veil of sadness that has covered the Gentiles is now lifted, indeed, all grounds for mourning, even death, have vanished. The Old Testament picture has no shadow. In contrast, the New Testament image is covered with many shadows. Let us first ask what sort of meal God the Father prepares for his Son. It is a wedding meal; the Book of Revelation calls it the Wedding of the Lamb (Rev 19:7; 21:9ff). The Lamb is the Son who, by means of his perfect sacrifice, brings about the marital union with the Church-Bride not only as Bridegroom but also as Eucharist.

            In the Eucharistic Feast it is God the Father who gives the supper: “My dinner is ready”, he has his servants announce, “Come to the wedding.” In solemn prayer the Church thanks the Father for his supreme and most exuberant gift: his Son as bread and wine. This thanksgiving arises from the Church, who becomes a bride by means of the meal. The Father gives his last and best; he has nothing better. Therefore, he who scorns this most precious gift can expect nothing more. He judges himself, he falls into ruin.

            Forms of scorning the invitation include both scorning the invitation to the wedding and accepting it but participating unworthily. Matthew combines these two ways of making God’s supreme gift worthless. The first form is indifference: those invited care nothing for the grace offered them – they have better things to do, their earthly business is more pressing. But since God has entered into a covenant with man, he cannot tolerate this sort of contempt for his offer. Just as Jeremiah had to announce the end of Jerusalem, so too the Evangelist announces the final end of the holy city: it will be reduced to rubble by the Romans.

            The second form of unworthiness, contrasting with the indifference of the invited guests, is that of the man who strolls into the Eucharistic Celebration as if entering a pub. Why should he get dressed up? The King should be happy that I come at all, that I still communicate, that I bother myself enough to leave my pew to stuff a bit of bread in my mouth. This man has to account for his behaviour: Don’t you have at least the faintest inkling that you are at the highest Feast of the Ruler of the cosmos? “But he was reduced to silence.” Perhaps only after being tossed out it will occur to him what he has missed out on because of his lackadaisical behaviour.

            When one is invited, he has to understand the spirit of his call. God bestows things on us without measure. But he does this to the end that we will learn to give ourselves without calculating, without stinginess. In the second reading St Paul rejoices that his congregation has learned to give. The whole meaning of the Eucharist becomes complete in this giving of what the King has given. Of course, we can never thank God enough for what he has given, but the best thanks, the thanksgiving that makes him happiest, is that we absorb something of the spirit of self-giving sacrifice, understand it, and implement it.