Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time A.  October 9, 2005.  Our Lady of Grace. Stewardship, all Masses.  Isaiah 25:6-10a. Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20. Matthew 22:1-14.

Today’s gospel is unique to Matthew.  No other gospel has this saying of Jesus.  In the parable of the Wedding Feast Jesus makes two points for our instruction, our happiness now, and our eternal salvation.  First, the feast of heaven is like a wedding banquet to which many people are invited.  To the astonishment of the King, everyone invited to the wedding banquet was too busy to come. In our daily lives we are often seen to be too busy to respond to God. We understand being too busy.  We can also understand that if we were too busy to say yes to God’s invitation it is not surprising that we are left out of God’s Kingdom.

The second part of the parable is harder to understand. In frustration the King of heaven told his servants to go out and invite any one they saw to the wedding banquet so that the banquet hall would be full.   The servants went out into the streets and invited both the good and the bad, until the celebration was packed.   When the King arrived for the celebration you would think that he would be delighted to see the crowd, but he was not.  Instead, he focused his attention on a man who was not prepared for the banquet; he was not wearing the proper clothes for a wedding.  Jesus is teaching us that it is not enough just to come to the banquet; we have to be properly prepared and properly dressed spiritually. The parable says that the one who shows up for Mass or for the banquet of daily life without being properly prepared will be severely punished. 

What does it mean to be properly dressed and prepared for Mass and for the Christian life?  When we come to Mass we must come clothed with faith.  We come because we believe in God and heaven, or at least because we believe in God and the possibility of hell.  But this kind of basic faith is only the beginning.  We are to come to worship with generous hearts focused on honoring and loving God, not just on getting it done the quickest way possible.  To come to worship without generous hearts runs the risk of offending God by our self centered attitude and therefore being cast out of the banquet.  To be properly prepared for worship we must also be clothed with an attitude of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving flows from an honest assessment and of our lives and a grateful response to God for all we have. Only hearts clothed in thanksgiving can worship God powerfully and effectively. Thankful people totally enjoy God’s gift of life.

My mother’s death a few weeks ago led me to reflect on the blessings that have been mine over the sixty four years of my life.  Without the gifts and blessings that have been given to me – free of charge- my life would not be what it is today.  My mother carried me in her womb for nine months and she charged me nothing.  She changed me, bathed me and fed me as an infant while showering me with affection, at no charge to me.  She dealt with me through the difficult teen years without charge.  Is there any way that I could adequately repay her!   Saying thank you was really more about softening and saving my own soul than doing something my mother needed.

How could I adequately thank God for the vast world he prepared for my birth over millions of years?  How could I adequately thank God for my parents, my home and the opportunities of this good Land?    Is there any way of thanking God other than returning to God some of what God has given to me – as an expression of my gratitude?   Giving to the Church and to the poor has less to do with the parish budget and the needs of the poor than it does with our own need to reach out to others in thanksgiving for all that the Lord has done for us.  Giving is about saving our souls.  Giving is a concrete expression of the fact that we have received everything from God.  An attitude of gratitude is absolutely essential to worshipping God well and to living each day in Christ’s love and peace.

This is Stewardship Sunday.  I have asked Greg Schmidt, the chair of the Parish Finance Committee, to speak with us this morning.  (Introduce Greg)

Unless we are clothed in an attitude of gratitude, we run the risk of being cast out of the banquet by the great King, and destroying our own peace and well being in the process.  Family budgets have been stretched to the breaking point for many of us these last few years.  Recently the markets have risen, even with the increase in the price of fuel.  The Parish Finance Council asks each parish family for a 5% raise in parish giving this year. In other words, a family that is in the habit of giving $20 each week would now give $21.   Yet, even this is little compared to all that we have received from God.  Please fill out your stewardship card. Give to Our Lady of Grace, not only because we need it or because I have asked you to give.  Give as an honest attempt to say thank you to God in a way that will make you proud of your thank offering for God’s goodness.   I promise you that I will do the same.  I will give because I love you and I love Our Lady of Grace.