13/10/2002 28th. Sunday Ordinary Season - Year A /// www.cinquepani.it

“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”. This is what st. Paul promise to the Christians of Fillipi, who had helped him in moments of need. God fills our emptiness, “”He has filled the hungry with good things”, He is the mountain of our salvation, in Him is the revelation of the Father’s love, He is the victory over death, He is the banquet and the provision that satisfies and fills with joy the heart! makes us secure in “the dark valley”. God intervenes “in Jesus Christ”.The Incarnate Son of God is our peace, security and true richness! Of this truth and reality speak in a veiled or prophetic way the same Isaiah whom Jesus speaks of in today’s parable.

Isaiah, for three times, speaks of “this mountain”: in a symbolic way he accompanies us up a mountain known, for  He is the mountain of our salvation, in Him is the revelation of the Father’s love, He is the victory over death, He is the banquet and the provision that satisfies and fills with joy the heart!the joy that reigns up there, a joy that comes from the Lord who has His hand on it. The joy of that mountain is expressed by a special banquet that is offered, but also by reason that on it the eyes of all peoples can contemplate the truth, can see the same face of God! On it the Lord speaks, and hence removes death, therefore even the fear, the anxiety, and the suffering  that are fruits of death. Great is the joy for sure is the salvation that can be enjoyed on “this mountain”.

Isaiah leave up to us to locate “this mountain”, and its should not be difficult to do so since we know Jesus!

The prophet prepares us to listen to the words of Jesus and to understand them in all their wisdom and power. In the parable he presents to us a king that prepares a wedding banquet for his son! It’s a solemn moment, the most desirable and loved of the king, great gift for all the people. But the invited persons retain to have more important or better things to do, and turn down  the invitation, on the contrary, they even argue with those who invite them for joy, insulting them or even kill them! We can understand to whom Jesus is referring for He is telling the parable to the “chief priests and elders of the people” those who would deliberate His condamnation to death.

The parable is not yet ended: the banquet is to be given! The invitation is to be turned to others, to all the others, without looking at dignity or particular merits, without looking whether they are good or bad. Thus, Jesus makes me understand  that even I can feel invited, as a matter of fact, I’m certainly invited: being invited doesn’t depend on whether I’m ok, without sins, but from the goodness and the will of the Father! I’m loved by God not because I’m good, but because He is merciful and patient and great in love! God doesn’t ask me anything to love me, He already loves me! I don’t need to do anything to gain His love!

This truth is truly “gospel”, good news that give peace and joy of the heart.

Someone might ask, so I’m not to do anything? If God loves me independently from who I am, is it invain that I observe laws and norms?

God passes His love on me, hence I need to accept His love to benefit of His blessing. I need to let Him in my life, let Him bring fruit, eitherwise I risk to become like the ones who were invited first and turned down His invitation, finding myself excluded from the joy and peace!

It’s to this that refers the strange ending of the parable. Jesus refers to the one who was not wearing the wedding outfit and hence thrown out. To understand this, it is necessary for one to understand the custom of those times. The one who would invite for a wedding would also provide for all the outfit: rejecting it, would mean lack of respect towards the one who invites. The love that God gives us, inviting us to His feast and the outfit that He offers us to put on, is His Son, Jesus himself is the gift of the Father. Without Him I cannot enter into His Kingdom.  Without Him I cannot say to the Father, I enter because it’s my right, I have earned my place! I would be like the Pharisees  or the chief priests whom Jesus was reproaching.

It’s what Paul has to tell us: “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”! I will express my gratitude committing myself to live a life that pleases Him always! Trying to do His will, He deserves it! I will not only obey His commands, but also His desires, not to gain His love, but because He already loves me very much, He loves me like a son, a daughter!

Praise to you, Lord Jesus: you are my “passport” to the Kingdom of Heaven, you are the mountain of my joy, the peace of my heart, source of communion with the Father and with all!