WEDDING FEAST OF THE SON


SAINT PIUS X, POPE

Judges 11:29-39; Ps 40:5,7-10; Mt 22:1-14

Invitation to the Wedding Feast

Our Lord puts another parable before his audience. Just as in the other parables, he intends to teach us about the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The Gospel says he directed this parable to the chief priests and elders of the people. Thus, the first audience or target of the parable is the chief priest and the elders within the Jewish people. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.” In support of our understanding of the one denarius given to the workers in the parable of yesterday as a gift and not a payment as such, the parable here presents the kingdom as what is given gratis. The chosen people were invited to the communion of God by God’s revelation of his word to them. Their refusal to obey the Commandments and follow God's word is a rejection of the invitation to divine communion. The Law and the Prophets constitute an invitation to the people of Israel, as a whole, to enter the communion of God. Their refusal to live by the Law and the Prophets led God to turn to the Gentiles. That does not mean that God’s turning to the Gentiles is an afterthought; it is part of God’s plan.

The word of God is an invitation to anyone who hears to come to the wedding feast of the Son of God. The wedding feast is about us, for all peoples and nations are to make up the bride of the Son of God. Just as the people of Israel had no merit to support their choice in the first place, we have no merit to support our invitation to the wedding feast. The only merit is that we are God’s own, for he made all of us to be his own people and temple. In the parable, our Lord says the king invited the people. But God is more than a king to us; He is both our God and Creator. We have every duty to accept his invitation to the wedding of his Son. In a deeper and spiritual understanding, the invitation is for our honour and eternal blessedness. He invites us to the wedding feast and rewards us with eternal life by constituting us as the body and bride of his Only Begotten Son. Another reason for the king’s anger is what he incurred for the lavish feast for those invited. “Tell those who have been invited that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” The oxen and fattened cattle represent the humanity of the Son of God sacrificed for our cleansing and salvation, to make us worthy of his Son’s hand in marriage. The reason for the anger of the king against the man without a wedding garment is that the provision has already been made for it. Nothing of ours is required, but to accept to come to the wedding feast.

Based on this, we consider the vow made by Jephthah rash. The deliverance of God’s people belongs to him and not to us. He only invites us to cooperate with him to deliver to others. For this reason, he sends his spirit on Jephthah. “The spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, who crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through to Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead made his way to the rear of the Ammonites.” His vow was needless if Yahweh had given his spirit. Again, it does not belong to any man to sacrifice another for any cause, unless at God’s demand. What is allowed is that we sacrifice ourselves to God, to do his will at all times. We celebrate Pope Saint Pius X for his understanding of how to consecrate self and all things to God through Jesus Christ. He was born in the village of Riese, near Venice, as one of ten children of a very poor family. He was ordained at the age of 23. He was successively the bishop of Mantua and of Venice, and elected Pope in 1903, against his wishes. As the Pope, he sought to “restore all things in Christ.” He fought for the Church to be free from the influence of the state. He also stopped the clergy from secular administrative offices. He revised the Code of Canon Law, founded Institutes of scriptural studies, and initiated the revision of the Latin translation of the Vulgate and the reform of the liturgy. He loved and lived in poverty as a Pope, preaching the Gospel to all in the courtyard of the Vatican. His simplicity and good heartedness worked miracles for the people. He died on the 20th of August, 1914, heartbroken at the news of the outbreak of the First World War.

Let us pray: O God, who to safeguard the Catholic faith and to restore all things in Christ, filled Pope Saint Pius the Tenth with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fortitude, graciously grant that, following his teaching and example, we may gain an eternal prize. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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