Homily for Mission Sunday

Homily for Mission Sunday

Oct. 20, 2024
Matt 22: 1-10
The Fountains, Tuckahoe, N.Y.      

“Go out into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find” (Matt 22: 9).

For Mission Sunday today, Pope Francis published a 4-page message, based on the gospel parable that we just read, the parable of the wedding feast.

Parable of the Wedding Feast
(Paolo Veronese)

In his message, the Holy Father makes 3 points:  1) “Go and invite”—mission is a tireless going out to invite others to the Lord’s banquet.  2) “To the marriage feast”—the mission of Christ and the Church points to the Eucharist and to heaven.  3) “Everyone”—Christ wants every man and woman invited and welcomed at his feast, in the Church and in eternity.

1. Jesus sent his followers to make disciples of all nations, bringing his Good News to the ends of the earth until the end of time.  As we pray in the 3d Eucharistic Prayer, “from the rising of the sun to its setting,” God wants a “pure sacrifice offered” to his name.  Pope Francis reminds us that every disciple of Jesus is a missionary.  All of us have a mission to go into the main roads, at least figuratively, to invite people to come to the Lord’s wedding feast.

You, of course, aren’t going to go out to Africa, Asia, or the Pacific islands to preach the Gospel.  You are to preach it here at The Fountains—by the example of your lives, by being honest, kind, generous, respectful; and perhaps by inviting someone to come to church with you.  The Pope says, “with closeness, compassion, and tenderness, and in this way reflecting God’s own way of being and acting.”

2. A banquet is an image of heaven.  The prophet Isaiah tells of “the Lord of hosts providing for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines” on his holy mountain, at Jerusalem, sign of God’s kingdom (25:6).  Jesus uses the wedding banquet image in the parable we heard and also speaks of the master who seats his faithful servants to dinner and waits on them (Luke 12:37).  The Eucharist is our foretaste of the banquet to which Jesus invites us in God’s kingdom; it’s the feast set for us every week while we’re pilgrims on our way to eternity, until “all of us will be with Christ at his wedding feast in the kingdom of God,” Francis writes.  The Eucharist now is already “the marriage feast of the Lamb of God” (Rev 19:9), which we acclaim just before Holy Communion:  “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

3. Christ invites everyone to his marriage feast.  The Holy Father quotes St. Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy:  “God our Savior wills that everyone be saved and come to knowledge of the truth” (2:4).  Thru Christ and thru missionary disciples, God invites everyone to share in his grace.  His call doesn’t depend on our worthiness; in the parable, “the servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests” (Matt 22:10).  God has even invited us!  His grace, his mercy, his forgiveness transform us.  So, let’s celebrate the wedding of the King’s Son, our Lord Jesus, and lets encourage others to come to the feast.