A Letter from Fr. Paul - Sunday, October 11th

Our sister parish collection will end this coming weekend.  If you have not yet contributed and you are able to do so, please be as generous as possible.  Click here for more information or to donate online.

We are out of pyxes that parishioners can use to take Communion to the homebound.  If you have any that you are not using, please return them to the parish.  Thank you.

In our first reading from Isaiah, we hear all-inclusive words five times (“all people” twice, “all nations,” “every face,” “whole earth”).  In the short second reading from Philippians, all-inclusive words appear four times (“every circumstance,” “all things” twice, “fully supply”). In the Gospel, the servants go out to the highways and byways to invite ALL to the wedding banquet (after the original invitees blew off the king and his invitation).  There is no doubt that these readings are telling us that ALL are redeemed by Jesus and invited to the Kingdom.

But it is not a “get out of jail free” card for everyone.  There is a catch: we need to have on our wedding gown.  When we hear the Gospel, it sounds odd: if the guests were invited in from the highways and byways, how could they have a wedding garment?  But the reality is that wedding garments were handed out at the door to those who did not have one, so the guest who was not wearing one had no excuse: he chose not to wear it.

The point for us is this: we have been invited to the heavenly banquet, but we need to cooperate.  We are given the Gospels, the Community, the Sacraments, etc., to help us know how to live.  If our lives are clothed in the proper apparel of faith, hope, love, forgiveness, tolerance and all the virtues of the Christian life, we will fit in perfectly at the wedding feast, for we will be properly dressed. 

I invite us to reflect on how well we are using our religious observance to grow in Gospel values.  What kind of shape is my wedding garment in?  What is one area I can do better –and how?

Let us support each other with example and prayer, as we strive to grow in our ability to live Gospel values. 

God bless.