“All Peoples”
Isaiah uses the image of a banquet to speak of God’s Reign. About seven hundred years before the time of the Messiah, Isaiah prophesized, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples” (First Reading, emphasis mine).
In the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable signifying the time has come when he fulfills that prophesy.
In Jesus Christ, God invites to his banquet all kinds of people, “bad and good alike.” They are now all “guests.”
Our world today still needs to know this inclusivity of God’s Reign. And each follower of Christ must be a witness and instrument of God’s invitation and welcome for all people.
I might think “I’m in” and become full of pride, forgetting that I cannot earn a place at the banquet. Besides, I might be tempted to judge people by my standards, to allow some in and keep others out.
It is helpful to keep in mind that the banquet is God’s, not mine. And it is God who offers the invitation and who is also the host, not me.
Image source: www.agnusday.org
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