Reflection for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time…October 15, 2023

by Judith Moe McCallum, Notre Dame Associate

Gospel of Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus is telling a complex parable, although we are not told of his audience. It follows two other parables in Matthew 21, where Jesus has been calling out the chief priests and Pharisees who plan to arrest him.

As this story goes, the Kingdom of God may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son…the invited guests ignored the invitation, some became brutal. The servants finally invite all they see in the roads, “the good and the bad.” One man has not dressed in a wedding garment and has come in pretense (perhaps to gain prestige or power.) The king sees this and has him bound and tossed out into the darkness. So it is that many are called, and few are chosen.

Many hear the call but are not interested or even become antagonistic, for not everyone who hears the gospel receives it. Only a few are listening. Yet all of God’s chosen who are willing to put on the Wedding garment of righteousness will be saved from darkness.

God has chosen to invite us, whoever we are, to a deeper relationship with Him. To be with Him and in Him. To be in union with Him. Each day the feast is prepared for us. Each day, God invites/calls all of us to the Kingdom of Heaven, the Wedding.

Christ offers us the beautiful Wedding Garment of love and mercy. Let us put it on…