The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to accept the invitation of the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and more fully participate in life.
The reading from the Prophet Ezekiel declares regeneration of the people with a heart of flesh.
* [36:25–26] God’s initiative to cleanse Israel (cf. 24:13–14) is the first act in the creation of a new people, no longer disposed to repeating Israel’s wicked past (chap. 20). To make this restoration permanent, God replaces Israel’s rebellious and obdurate interiority (“heart of stone”) with an interiority (“heart of flesh”) susceptible to and animated by God’s intentions (“my spirit,” v. 27). (Ezekiel, CHAPTER 36, n.d.)
Psalm 51 is a prayer for cleansing and pardon.
* [Psalm 51] A lament, the most famous of the seven Penitential Psalms, prays for the removal of the personal and social disorders that sin has brought. The poem has two parts of approximately equal length: Ps 51:3–10 and Ps 51:11–19, and a conclusion in Ps 51:20–21. The two parts interlock by repetition of “blot out” in the first verse of each section (Ps 51:3, 11), of “wash (away)” just after the first verse of each section (Ps 51:4) and just before the last verse (Ps 51:9) of the first section, and of “heart,” “God,” and “spirit” in Ps 51:12, 19. The first part (Ps 51:3–10) asks deliverance from sin, not just a past act but its emotional, physical, and social consequences. The second part (Ps 51:11–19) seeks something more profound than wiping the slate clean: nearness to God, living by the spirit of God (Ps 51:12–13), like the relation between God and people described in Jer 31:33–34. (Psalms, PSALM 51, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches using the Parable of the Wedding Banquet.
* [22:1–14] This parable is from Q; see Lk 14:15–24. It has been given many allegorical traits by Matthew, e.g., the burning of the city of the guests who refused the invitation (Mt 22:7), which corresponds to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70. It has similarities with the preceding parable of the tenants: the sending of two groups of servants (Mt 22:3, 4), the murder of the servants (Mt 22:6), the punishment of the murderers (Mt 22:7), and the entrance of a new group into a privileged situation of which the others had proved themselves unworthy (Mt 22:8–10). The parable ends with a section that is peculiar to Matthew (Mt 22:11–14), which some take as a distinct parable. Matthew presents the kingdom in its double aspect, already present and something that can be entered here and now (Mt 22:1–10), and something that will be possessed only by those present members who can stand the scrutiny of the final judgment (Mt 22:11–14). The parable is not only a statement of God’s judgment on Israel but a warning to Matthew’s church. (Matthew, CHAPTER 22, n.d.)
Mary Lee Brock desires a “natural” heart to welcome God’s voice as she prepares to return to teaching in “back to school” days.
The invitation to hear God’s voice puts my overloaded back to school list of tasks in perspective. I am reminded of why I am called to teach and pray for the grace for my teaching to serve the kingdom of God. This fall when I encounter a nervous student, I pray that I hear the voice of God in that nervousness and show the compassion the student needs. I pray for those who want nothing more than to go to school, but yet are not allowed. When I wonder if a lesson I prepared is clever enough, I ask God to remind me to keep my ego in check so I can truly serve. And I pray as we enter this season of back to school, we all learn to always hear God’s voice. (Creighton U. Daily Reflection, n.d.)
Don Schwager quotes “A guest with no wedding garment,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
"But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful, my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart's clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw there a person not clothed in a wedding garment. What do we think is meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only God's love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 22:1-14 comments that God’s invitation to us isn’t just once and done. Every day, he calls us to celebrate the wedding feast of his son. Every day he invites us to enter into his joy. Whether it’s in the more private celebration of personal prayer or the communal celebration of the Mass, God is welcoming us into his presence, where we can know his joy and feast on his word.
Today, ask yourself, “Am I listening for the Lord’s invitation? Am I prepared to accept it?” If you’re hesitating, think about what might be holding you back. Maybe it’s time to reexamine your priorities. Perhaps lesser things have subtly crept into your life, and it’s time to again put God and his kingdom back at the center. Or maybe anxiety over your child, your job, or your finances is preventing you from even expecting an invitation to the banquet of the Lord.
Whatever it might be, recommit yourself to your heavenly Father so that you don’t miss out on what he has for you. He longs to draw you into the richness of his wedding feast. May nothing hold you back!
“Father, give me the grace to accept your invitation, today and every day.” (Meditation on Matthew 22:1-14, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler notes the change from condemnation in the writing of Ezekiel to the promise of God to cleanse and put a new heart in His people. The burning of cities in the parable in Matthew may be a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE by the Romans. Friar Jude uses the choice of the guest not to wear a wedding garment to remind us of the final accounting that is prominent in the Gospel of Matthew.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Mirabai Starr who finds inspiration in mystics Julian of Norwich (1343–c. 1416) and John of the Cross (1542–1591). Both endured profound suffering and yet discovered a deep and Divine love in its midst. Mystics see through a lens of paradox: dazzling darkness, beautiful wound, the longing that is the remedy for longing. Paradox points beyond itself to a truth that both transcends and includes logic, a truth that is alive, generative, and whole. Such a dynamic mode of knowing demands our complete attention.
What does a religious woman who dwelt in an anchor-hold during the Middle Ages have to do with you and me today? Julian endured a long and cruel pandemic. The disease ravaged her community and carried off the people that she loved. She learned to shelter in place, focusing on cultivating her interior landscape and sharing the fruits of her wisdom through the window that opened from her cell onto the busy streets of her city (think computer screen and Zoom), where she offered counsel to visitors . . . each day….
And how could a renegade monk, who survived the Spanish Inquisition despite the Jewish and Moorish blood that flowed through his veins, have anything to teach us about flourishing in our own dark nights? John of the Cross illumines the transformational power of radical unknowing. He rekindles our latent longing for union with the Beloved and, through sublime poetry and precise prose, blows on the flames so that they dance back to life in our beleaguered hearts. (Rohr, n.d.)
We contemplate the nature of the transformation that God seeks to accomplish in His people to witness to love, compassion, mercy, by our lives.
References
Creighton U. Daily Reflection. (n.d.). Online Ministries. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/081822.html
Ezekiel, CHAPTER 36. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/36?23
Matthew, CHAPTER 22. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22?1
Meditation on Matthew 22:1-14. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/08/18/470803/
Psalms, PSALM 51. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/51?12
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/dazzling-darkness-2022-08-18/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). They Would Not Come to the Feast! Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 18, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=aug18
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