“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32
And so at every Eucharistic Celebration we ‘unworthy’ sinners are invited to His Heavenly Banquet here on earth to partake and receive His grace, mercy and love. To be reminded of His great love for us and how we should be living truly in His likeness and image. Sons and daughters of God our Heavenly Father so loved by Him. He desires to take out our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. In other words He will take out all that is dead, not of Him and give us His life and divinity!
So then can we view attending the Eucharistic Celebration as an obligation?
Do we continue to be inattentive, aloof, ignorant or asleep? To be talking among ourselves? To treat the Celebration as purely ritualistic and unwelcomed? If so sisters and brothers then we have failed to put on the ‘wedding garment’.
For every Eucharist is a Celebration, a thanksgiving for the great love poured out for us all! And so we partakers of the Heavenly Banquet with hearts disposed to receive, welcome Him fully into our beings. We rejoice for our hearts are transformed, transfigured into His likeness. He receives us; just as we receive Him, body, blood, soul and divinity! And having such abundant graces, mercy and love we go out into the World to share the joy of the Gospel by our lives.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen
First reading
Ezekiel 36:23-28 ·
I will remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh
The word of the Lord was addressed to me as follows: ‘I mean to display the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. And the nations will learn that I am the Lord – it is the Lord who speaks – when I display my holiness for your sake before their eyes. Then I am going to take you from among the nations and gather you together from all the foreign countries, and bring you home to your own land. I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your defilement and all your idols. I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws and sincerely respect my observances. You will live in the land which I gave your ancestors. You shall be my people and I will be your God.’
Gospel
Matthew 22:1-14
Invite everyone you can to the wedding
Jesus began to speak to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables: ‘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. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’
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