You are not indispensable, so serve God unconditionally(HOMILY FOR THE 28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME 15TH 0CTOBER 2023

HOMILY FOR THE 28TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Isaiah 25:6-10a; Ps.23; Phil.4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14

 _In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for length of days unending_ (Ps.23:6b)

You are not indispensable, so serve God unconditionally

The bullet points of the lessons of the today’s readings, particularly the gospel, are as follows: more than satisfying our earthly/material needs, God so earnestly desires the salvation of all (without exception); for this reason, He has prepare a place for us and continues to make us conscious of our heavenly inheritance; heaven needs us but heaven will remain heaven without us; heaven needs us but we must meet the necessary conditions for belonging there. In the gospel reading of today, Jesus used the symbol of a marriage banquet to illustrate the relationship or love that God has for man. The Church (man) is the bride of Christ the bridegroom. The unity of Christ and His Church becomes a wedding banquet where the bride is forever united with the groom. Like an average bridegroom, the Lord so much loves the Church, His bride; but unlike what happens in matrimony where the groom becomes complete when united with his bride, the Lord is not incomplete without uniting with man.

Jesus told this parable to caution us against the attitude of indispensability in the vineyard of God. First, hardly will you find a person without value feeling indispensable. It is always those who are gifted/endowed, who play very significant role or who are well recognized for their contribution to the growth and continuous well-being to the body of Christ and the society at large, that often times fall into the temptation of feeling indispensable. The Jews were such kind of people. They knew, from historical perspective, how precious they were in the eyes of God. Infact, countless events have proven that God was not as close to other nations as He was to them. Now, instead of understanding this closeness as a privilege, they misunderstood God as needing them to be God. Truly, there is a way you will become so generous to some persons that if you fail once to show them that generosity, they get offended as though you have denied them their right. When privileges are consistent, they may be mistaken as rights by the unwise.

Ordinarily, a celebration such as wedding ceremony will loose its fervor if invited guests turn down the invitation. No matter how prepared the host may be, if there are no invitees to grace the occasion, the efforts of the preparation become a waste. Cueing from this, if the Lord has prepared a banquet for us, as narrated by the first reading, the banquet will need our presence for it to be worthwhile. As if to confirm this thought, the king sent his servants to the invitees a second time; as though he was begging them to come. This act of begging to honour invitation is correct to the extent that it reflects God’ desire for the salvation of all mankind. But it does not mean that the worth of heaven’s celebration is dependent on our presence.

No man, and I repeat, no man, can ever frustrate the plans of God. God uses man but never depends on man. So, when the invitees have clearly shown disrespect for the king’s invitation, those who were thought to be unworthy of such celebration were invited, and they honoured it. Often times, we begin with having innocent desires to serve God in different capacities in the Church. When the Lord enables us to serve well, the Church starts calling on us frequently to serve in that capacity that we have once exceled. We oblige. But along the line, pride begins to set in. We start feeling too special or more relevant than others in the Church. We subtly begin to threaten people not to offend us, else we withdraw our services or generosity from the Church.

Furthermore, we start demanding from Church what we know is not right for her to give to us. We just want to get what others cannot get, and then boast about it. We want to be the only link to the priest. We want to have unlimited access to the priest and the rectory. Maybe some even want to be receiving bank alerts of the parish account. Underneath all of these is a feeling of indispensability. Sadly, we sometimes succeed in getting the authority meet such unscrupulous demands of ours; simply because the system wants to keep us for effective administration. Beloved, when our services to God looses the fervor of selflessness, it automatically looses too its acceptability before God. The God who loves and saved us unconditionally cannot be served with condition(s). Let us be guided!

Moving on in the parable, amongst those who honoured the invitation was a man without a wedding garment. One would have thought that since the king was in need of invitees, he would have overlooked the improper dressing. But surprisingly, he sent the man out of the banquet. This teaches us that no matter how much God desires our salvation, He will not settle for mediocrity. The man without the wedding garment represents those who have become so filled with pride that they consider themselves exempt from rules and regulations. Because they are prominent, they think they should be above the Law. They donate handsomely to the Church, therefore, the priest should exempt their children preparing for marriage from marriage course. They were instrumental in bringing wealthy people to build the Church, therefore they should be able to march straight into the room of the Parish Priest anytime, without anyone stopping them on the way. When they are having thanksgiving, they inform the parish priest ahead of time so that he himself celebrates the Mass, and not the assistant parish priest. When all of these unscrupulous demands are not met, many withdraw their services or generosity, tag the Church as ungrateful, and hoping that the Church will amount to nothing without them.

In the second reading, St. Paul noted that he has learnt how to survive in all circumstances, whether in plenty or in hunger. He said: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me”. Beloved, the Church can survive without anyone. If you withdraw your services and generosity, it will affect the Church, no doubt, but she will surely bounce bank in no time. Let us make the extra effort to discipline ourselves to remain humble irrespective of how instrumental we are in God’s vineyard. Not even the priest is indispensable! The psalmist declares: In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for length of days unending. One with such disposition will never threaten to leave the Church or withdraw his/her services. We need God far more than He needs us. If at all God needs man, it is only in love.