28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Deacon Dick Kostner
Why should we attend Mass on Sunday? Our Scripture readings tell us why. Our First reading from Isaiah tells us that we will feast on rich food and choice wines; it goes on to say that death will be destroyed through the love of God for his children and the sacrifice of his sons earthly life, for our salvation. Our Responsorial Psalm prayers tell us that we need not fear evil because of our faith in Jesus; ‘only goodness and kindness will follow us all the days of our life.‘ Our Second Reading has St. Paul tells us that we will be well fed and living in abundance, God will fully supply whatever we need through his son Jesus. And our Gospel parable story outlines God’s desire for our attendance for the wedding feast of Jesus to His Church, and the sharing of His ministry of love with His Church, his earthly body represented by the works of his faithful followers. All this reminds me of the Old Milwaukee Beer commercial of a group of guys sitting around a campfire, enjoying each others company and sipping on a cold and delicious and proclaiming, “It don’t get any better than this!”
Our Gospel discloses to us that God is persistent in his invitation to us to join this wedding feast. It acknowledges that although everyone is welcomed some will decline the invitation for they have better things to do. Some will even ridicule the invitation as they need to tend to their business but the king does not give up and opens his invitation to the whole city but some even killed his servants who invited them. The parable story tells us at some point God will withdraw his invitation and they will no longer be admitted or allowed to participate in the wedding feast.
We all live busy lives but we must remember that our earthly life will someday end. The choice is ours to make for God will never force his kindness and love upon us. As Fr. Victor told us a few weeks ago, the Holy Mass is the place where heaven and earth meet. It is the place where we are fed and provided with the food of salvation which will allow us to live forever in the kingdom of God. We feed our bodies daily in order to experience life. We many times fail to realize that we are more than body we also possess within us the spirit of our creator. The spirit part of us also needs to be fed. It is at the celebration of the Mass that the spirit within this family is fed and nourished in order to provide for us peace of everlasting life with our Creator. It is the time and place for us to give thanks to God for all the gifts he has bestowed upon us and all he asks is that his children show appreciation for those gifts by joining him for the wedding celebration of eternal life between Jesus and his Church. I know that there are many reasons why people have abandoned the invitation from Jesus to attend Mass. It might be that you don’t like the priest; or the Mass is boring; or the homily is too long. Or there is a Packer game on.
Last week my friend Lloyd, at our That Man Is You class, gave me copy of something a Bishop had said in one of his homilies and Lloyd said, “Deacon, you need to use this in one of your homilies.” When a “Church Elder” tells me this needs to be shared I know the Spirit is at work helping me speak to his people so here it is Lloyd:
“A pastor asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace for the morning breakfast: ‘Lord, I hate buttermilk,’ the farmer began. The pastor opened one eye to glance at the farmer and wondered where this was going. The farmer continued, ‘And Lord, you know I don’t much care for raw white flour.’ The pastor once again opened an eye to glance around the room and saw that he wasn’t the only one to feel uncomfortable. Then the farmer added, ‘But Lord, when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love warm fresh biscuits. So Lord, when things come up that we don’t like, when life gets hard, when we don’t understand what you’re saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing. It will probably be even better than biscuits, Amen.’”
Jesus gives us an open invitation to join him for the Holy Mass so please come and share his invitation with others to witness heaven and earth coming together to give give thanks and watch Jesus “do the mixing.” As the boys around the campfire proclaimed, “It don’t get any better than that!”
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