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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time —Year A

Fr. Jijo Kandamkulathy CMF

 甘天霖神父 

Gospel： Matthew 22:1-14

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew,

Glory to you, O Lord!

Jesus again in reply spoke to them 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."

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily： Invited to dance with God
The wedding feast is the biblical image of the encounter of love between the Lord and Israel. In the parable, the bridegroom—the son—is Jesus, and the bride is the whole of humanity. The banquet is the happiness of the Messianic era. Whoever accepts the proposal of the gospel and enters the kingdom of God experiences the most authentic and deepest joy.

The servants are sent to invite the guests. The first invitees did not come to the party; they didn’t have the heart to abandon their interests, their field, and business. They did not need a banquet; they felt satiated, believing that they already have what is needed for a life without problems.

The guests gathered from along the streets and squares are people of the whole world—the bad and the good, without distinction. In fact, it gives priority to those who do not have merits. It’s a subtle way of alluding to the complete gratuitousness of God’s love and the fact that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly”. (Rom 5:6)

This reminds us that the people of God is made up of people who are bad and good. It is an invitation to cultivate an understanding of human weakness and to keep the doors open to all our communities. The poor, the marginalized, those who feel rejected in the church must find a place where they feel accepted, understood and valued.

The curtain could fall on this sweet and charming scene of everyone being part of the banquet. Instead, here the parable continues with an episode that seems to ruin everything. The king enters the room, browses at the guests, and gets angry with a guest who did not wear the proper attire. He treats him with unprecedented harshness, even unjustified, considering the venial sin. Those who joined the joyful feast cannot but be stunned. How do you explain that? 

This second part of the parable is not the continuation of the first. It is a new parable that is isolated and interpreted without reference to the previous one. The theme that the evangelist wants to focus on in this second part is the possibility, even for those who have accepted the invitation to enter the kingdom of God to turn away from the logic of the Gospel. They risk failure as those who declined the invitation. One might wonder in the meantime that among all those who were considered unworthy and originally excluded from the banquet, only one was actually unworthy. The rest were only perceived to be unworthy by prejudices.

The new life of the Christian is often compared in the New Testament to a new dress, worn on the day of baptism. It is not enough to have received the sacrament; one needs to assume the appropriate behavior. One cannot present oneself with the rags of old life: adultery, dishonesty, disloyalty, and moral debauchery.

As for the punishment inflicted on the man without a wedding attire, it should be noted, above all, that this rough way of expression is typical of Matthew. Only Mathew uses the expressions “thrown out into extreme darkness” (Mt 8:12; 23:30) and “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:42-50; 23:30; 24:51). The other evangelists do not use this language.

Matthew writes to the Jews who are used to be encouraged and reprimanded by their preachers with these strong cultural expressions. This fact should be kept in mind to avoid being an absurd and even blasphemous image of God, a God without heart and without mercy.
The purpose of the evangelist is to remind Christians of his and our communities of the seriousness of which they assume and carry out their baptismal commitments.

证道：天主邀请我们与祂共舞，对所有人保持开放！

 婚宴是表达上主与以色列爱之相遇的圣经比喻。在比喻中，儿子新郎是耶稣，新娘是整个人类。宴席是默西亚时代的快乐幸福。那接受了福音劝谕，并进入天国的人，就会经验到最真实和最深的喜乐。

 仆人们被派遣去邀请客人。首先被邀请的人并没有来参加宴席，他们无心放弃自己的爱好和利益、田地和生意。他们并不需要这宴会，因为他们已经觉得满足了，并相信自己已经毫无问题地拥有了生命所需的一切。

从街道和广场上聚集来的客人们是整个世界的人，不论是好人还是坏人，都一视同仁。事实上，它首先考虑的是那些没有功绩的人。这个微妙的方式暗指天主之爱的完全免费赠予，真相是：当我们还是罪人的时候，基督就在指定的时期为不虔敬的人死了。（罗5:6）

这提醒我们：天主的子民是由坏人和好人所组成的。这邀请培养我们理解人性的软弱，并始终对我们团体中的所有人保持开放。穷人、边缘者和在教会中感到被拒绝的人，都必须找到一个让他们感到被接纳、被理解和有价值的地方。

这甜蜜而又迷人的事件将落幕，每个人都成为了婚宴的一部分。这比喻反而以似乎毁灭一切的插曲来拓展。国王进入宴会厅，巡视坐席的客人们，并对那没有身着礼服的客人发怒。他以前所未有的严厉对待那客人，甚至是考虑到这轻微的罪过，这样严厉不公平。那些加入这充满喜乐庆节的人，不得不感到震惊。这要如何解释呢？

比喻的第二部分并不是第一部分的延续，而是一个独立的新比喻，没有参考前一个比喻的解释。圣史在第二部分想要关注的主题是可能发生的事情，甚至是为那些已经接受进入天国邀请的人，也会背离福音的道理。他们与拒绝参加的人一样，也冒着失败的危险。与此同时，有人可能会想：在所有被认为不配参加宴会的人当中，只有一个人实际上不配参加宴会。其余的人只是由于别人的偏见而被认为不配而已。

基督徒的新生命，在新约中通常被比作一件新衣服，会在受洗的时候穿上。仅仅领受圣洗圣事是不够的，还需要具有与此相应的行为举止。人不能以过往生命的旧衣服示人：通奸、不诚实、不忠和道德败坏。

首先应该指出的是：至于对没有穿礼服者的惩罚，这种粗暴方式是玛窦典型的表达。只有玛窦使用了这种表达：“扔到外边的黑暗里”（玛8:12），“那里要有哀号和切齿”（玛13:42-50；24:51）。其他三位圣史没有使用这种语言表达。

玛窦是写给那些习惯于被他们犹太教的宗教领袖，用这些强烈的文化表达所鼓励和训斥的犹太人。这事实应牢记于心，防止成为愚蠢的人，甚至是亵渎天主的肖像，一个既没有心，也没有慈悲的天主。 

圣史的目的是提醒他的基督徒团体，以及我们的教会团体，要承担和践行自己圣洗承诺的严肃性。

文本来源：雅颂福传

译者：天心神父