Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Cycle A

First Reading - Isaiah 25:6-10

Responsorial - Psalms 23:1-6

Second Reading - Philippians 4:12-20

Alleluia Verse - Ephesians 1:17-18

Gospel - Matthew 22:1-14

The Book of Revelation is often misunderstood to be about the end of the world. What it is actually about is the Mass that will happen in heaven at the end of time. This Mass is known as the wedding feast of the Lamb and it is about the wedding banquet of Christ the bridegroom and his bride the Church. This is the wedding banquet Jesus is alluding to in his parable in today’s gospel.

The Catholic Mass acts like a conduit between space and time, uniting three places in eternity together all at once. It is said to be the unbloody re-presentation of the crucifixion. It is not a memorial of the crucifixion. It is not a reenactment of it. We do not re-sacrifice Jesus at the Mass. What Mass truly does is make the one and only crucifixion at Calvary present to us in our time and place. The crucifixion is made present to us so that we may participate in it. The supernatural reality of what is happening is veiled to our eyes while we are in the natural world just as the supernatural reality was veiled to those who stood before the cross two-thousand years ago.

The supernatural reality that they then and we now could not see is the Mass that is taking place in heaven, the wedding feast of the Lamb. That is the third point that is connected together in eternity. The crucifixion is the one Mass happening in the natural world. The wedding feast of the Lamb is the same Mass happening in the supernatural world and we get to participate in it though the Mass offered in our time and space. Every person, angelic and human, has been invited to participate in this Mass. Some of the angels outright refused and were cast out of heaven. Sadly, many of us have also refused the invitation. We come up with any excuse we can to not to come to Mass. Eventually we stop coming altogether.

“But when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?”

I have heard it said that the king provided wedding garments to all those who attended the wedding so when he saw the man not wearing the garment he was provided this angered the king and the king threw him out. When it comes to the wedding feast at the end of time this is most certainly true. When we are baptized, we are clothed with a white garment. As the garment is given to the newly baptized the celebrant says –

“You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself with Christ. May this white garment be a sign to you of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring it unstained into eternal life.”

You have clothed yourself with Christ. We have been provided the wedding garment we are to wear to the wedding of the Lamb at the end of time. We are to bring it unstained to the wedding. This means that we are to die in a state of grace with no mortal sin on our souls. Woe to the man who comes to the banquet without this garment because it was lost due to mortal sin. He will be bound and thrown out of heaven to spend all eternity in the place God made for the devil and his demons.

The crucifixion is the greatest act of love that will ever happen in reality. The wedding feast of the Lamb is the greatest act of love to ever happen in the supernatural reality. They are the same act. We are invited to participate in this act of now in our time and space at Mass and again for all eternity in heaven. But the choice is ours to make.

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