Saint Matthew 22:1-14

The story is told of a pig and a chicken who are walking past a Church one Sunday Morning …

Says the chicken to the pig, "You know, over the years, those people in there have been very nice to us. I think we ought to do something nice for them." The pig replies, "Good idea, what do you have in mind?"

"I think we ought to have a big banquet," says the chicken. "I'm all for that," says the pig, "But what shall we serve them to eat?"

"Bacon and eggs," says the chicken. "Not on your life," says the pig. "For you, that's just a contribution. For me, it's a total commitment."

In today's Gospel Reading, we have the familiar parable of Jesus in which a King prepares a big Wedding Feast for his Son. He sends out invitations but not one of the invitees will commit themselves to attend. All of the invitations are turned down. Consequently, the King instructs his servants to "Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the Wedding Banquet. So the Servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the Wedding Hall was filled with guests" (Matthew 22:9-10).

The Banquet of Life Jesus offers us is not a potluck dinner to which each invited guest makes a contribution. Jesus has the menu well in hand. The table of the Lord is set. The food is prepared and ready. What Jesus requires of us is the total commitment to face life as it is and thus hasten it on its way to what it might become - to what, by the Grace of God, it will be.

In calling us to total commitment, Jesus has long since committed Himself to us. "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me and I live in them," says the Lord in John's Gospel. "Anyone who eats this Bread will live forever" (John 6:56,58).

Jesus not only invites us to the Sacred Banquet, Jesus is the Banquet. Through the total gift of Himself, Jesus invites us into the Supreme Banquet of Life.

Those who hold back from Christ's invitation may have their reasons. They may perhaps want to preserve their independence. Consequently, they are slow to learn that it is only in losing ourselves that we find ourselves. Only through total commitment do we discover life.

There is in every life an adolescent period in which we want to break away from the familiar bonds of family and childhood friends, and strike out on our own in search of a larger and more exciting world. This is a perfectly healthy impulse and we would worry about any young person who never felt the siren call to venture into the unknown. Unfortunately, many of us remain adolescents all our lives long.

There is a profound sense in which we should be discontented and restless for the new. This is because we were made for the Kingdom of God and we must remain unsatisfied with anything short of the Kingdom. But the New Testament informs us that the signs of that Kingdom's coming are to be discovered not in adolescent fantasizing, but in grown-up commitment.

In his classic writing called "Confessions," Saint Augustine recalls how he held back, little knowing that what he refused is what he desired. "Claim me as your own," he prayed. But then he added, "But not just now." He wanted first to enjoy certain of life's pleasures, not realizing that only when we surrender our lives so we really begin to live life. When finally Augustine did accept the invitation, he cried out to the Lord, "Too late I love you my beauty, so ancient, yet ever new!"

We are told, in the Book of Proverbs, that Divine Wisdom has "spread her table," and we are invited to the banquet.

There was a time when the First Disciples of Jesus thought they were being invited to join in a holy lark. They enjoyed the ride on the Bandwagon. They came to Jesus and wanted to make advance reservations for places in His Kingdom which they were sure was going to come into being at any moment.

But Jesus turned to them and asked, "Can you drink the cup that I must drink? (Mark 10:38). Jesus made clear that they could not have a menu different from their Master's. "My food," Jesus said, "Is to do the Will of the one who sent Me, and to complete His work" (John 4:34).

On the night before His torture and execution, there in the Garden of Gethsemane, He cried out, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." The wine had acquired a bitter taste! But then came the triumphant affirmation, "Yet not what I want but what you want (Matthew 26:39).

"Auntie Mame," the eat, drink and be merry character in the play of the same name, declares that "Life is a Banquet, and most poor so-and-so's are starving to death."

To be sure, Life is a Banquet, but not in the way Auntie Mame supposes.

The Apostle Paul strikes a note of high festivity in his letter to the Ephesians:

"Be filled with the Spirit. As you sing Psalms and Hymns … go on singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts" (Ephesians 5:18,19). \

But Paul also knew the reality of the bitter cup; He knew the pain that falls drop by drop upon the heart; he knew the pain of lashes that opened great wounds in His flesh. Yet, at wisdom's banquet, He "was able to share His suffering" (Philippians 3:10), and the unconquerable joy of His victory both.

We might well with Augustine say, "I'm coming Lord, but not just now."

We might stand apart from the table, thinking we are preserving our individuality, when in fact our real selves wait for us at the Divine Wisdom's table.

"Not just now!" we say. "This day!" the Lord answers. "Yes, now!"

Jesus concludes the parable in today's Gospel Reading in these words:

"For many are called, but few are chosen." Your very presence here is a sign that you indeed have been chosen. Consequently, together we say, "We're coming Lord, and we're coming now!"

Before taking her first steps, a baby bear asked the mother bear "Do I move my left front foot first or my right front foot? Or do I put both front feet out together and then both my back feet? Or do I move my two right feet first and then the two on the other side? The mother bear said to her cub, simply, "Forget the thinking and start walking!"

Don't be like that baby bear in your response to Jesus' invitation to the Divine Banquet. Forget the thinking and start walking, saying, "Lord we're coming and "We're Coming Now!"

Thanks be to God!!!!!

Amen!!!