Our worthiness doesn't matter to God. All that counts is our willingness to receive what we don't deserve.

In today’s gospel parable, the kingdom of God is compared to a wedding feast.

Today’s Gospel contains two of the parables of Jesus:  the parable of the wedding feast and the parable of the man without an appropriate wedding garment.

We like the first parable better.  In the first parable, the wedding banquet has been  prepared but those invited found excuses not to come. What began as a select guest list for this marriage  celebration becomes an indiscriminate one.  The invited guests had other priorities.  Those who ae not aware of their spiritual poverty, who do not hunger and thirst for a new world will never enter the Kingdom of God. Then the king gave a second set of instructions to:  “Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.”  The banquet message is one of hospitality and the universality of the reign of God.  All are welcome.

It is an invitation to keep the doors open to all in our communities.  The poor, the marginalized, those who feel rejected in the Church must find a place where they feel accepted, understood and valued.  No one is excluded from the Table of the Lord.

At each Eucharist we pray, “Lord I am not worthy.”  Our worthiness doesn’t matter to God.  All that counts is our willingness to receive what we don’t deserve.  It’s a surprising offer nobody should refuse.

The curtain could fall on this sweet and charming scene.  Instead, there is a second parable that seems to ruin everything.

The second parable seems a little more severe and harsh.  The king noticed a man who was not wearing a wedding robe:  “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?”  Then the king said to the attendants:  “Bind him hand and feet, and throw into the outer darkness.”  We squirm a bit when accountability is asked of us.

The gospel’s primary message as to an appropriate wedding garment refers to our hearts.  Conversion is not just an intellectual exercise, but a journey of the heart. The invited guests are invited not just to observe, but to participate.

A way of looking at the wedding garment is our commitment to stewardship – our willingness to make choices to make the gospel come alive in our family life and in our parish community.

Another way of looking at the wedding garment is to compare it to our baptismal  garment.  It is not enough to receive the sacrament of baptism but one must take responsibility for living out our baptismal commitments.

Yes, absolutely everyone is invited to the Table of the Lord.  But the spiritual life calls us to make a decision of stewardship in our discipleship of the Lord Jesus.  The one hour here at Church on Sunday morning is profoundly important in giving thanks to the Lord our God, but it is just the beginning of the spiritual journey.  The spirituality of stewardship invites us to gt our head around the notion that one hour a week is just the beginning of the path of discipleship.

Next weekend is Stewardship Commitment Sunday – stewardship of time and talent.  You received a parish mailing with a stewardship commitment of time and talent and are asked to place this commitment card in the collection basket Sunday.

What do we mean by a stewardship of time?  The simplest explanation is to take the time to invite Christ into your life?  This happens as we make time for prayer in the course of the day.  What form of prayer helps you to encounter the Lord in your life?  The Lord’s prayer, the rosary, Eucharistic adoration, quiet time in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, quiet in the leisure of your own home or perhaps simply living with an attitude of gratitude.   Most of all,  the celebration of the sacraments.  This celebration of the Eucharist Sunday after Sunday is the most important stewardship of time for us as Catholic Christians.

The stewardship of talents is your willingness to share your God-given talents and abilities.  All is a gift of God.  The gifts we have been given, we are given to share.

On the stewardship commitment cards, there are seven areas of ministry in the life of the parish with a leadership team associated with each area of ministry.  What would it take for you to commit to some area of ministry in our parish life?  What would it take to give back to the Lord a portion of the giftedness that has been given to you?

Filling out this commitment and placing in the collection basket next Sundays would be your way of giving it to the Lord a portion of the blessings that have been given to you?

Have a blessed day.