Homily for the
28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Oct. 11, 2026
Matt 22: 1-14
Villa Maria, Bronx
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The Wedding Feast
Frans Francken the Younger

“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (Matt 22: 2).

Jesus has been offering us a series of parables about the kingdom of heaven and those who attain it.  He’s in Jerusalem in the last week of his earthly life, confronted each day by “the chief priests and elders of the people” (22:1), who oppose his teachings and his actions and are trying to do away with him.

Some of the Lord’s parables are aimed directly at his opponents:  the one we heard 2 weeks ago about the 2 sons whom their father wants to work in his vineyard; the one of the wicked tenant farmers we heard last week; and today’s story of the king’s wedding banquet.  Today’s gospel ends with another parable attached to the banquet story, aimed not at the chief priests and elders but at the Christian believers hearing Matthew’s Gospel.

Feasting is a traditional image of heaven; we heard that in our 1st reading (Is 25:6-10) and responsorial psalm (23).  We allude to the Lord’s wedding feast in every Mass before Communion when we proclaim, “Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb,” which is a line taken from the Book of Revelation, “Blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (19:9).  In fact, we, the Church, are the Lamb’s bride, and the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus, summons us to our place at his side.

In Jesus’ parable, a king’s preparing the wedding feast for his Son, obviously an image of God the Father and the marriage feast of his Son, our Lord Jesus, to which “many are invited” (Matt 22:14), meaning “those from every tribe and tongue, people and nation,” quoting again from Revelation (5:9).  Unfortunately, those whom the great king first invited to his feast—Jesus is addressing the leaders of the Jewish people—refuse to come.  Some make flimsy excuses:  they’ve got to look after their property or their business[—like modern Christians who have games or social events to attend to or are too weary to get to Sunday Mass][1].

Still other invitees get violent with the king’s servants, like those who persecute the Church—1st the Jewish leaders, then Greek and Roman authorities, and later many others, both governments and mobs.  In our own time, thousands of Christians are jailed, exiled, or killed in dozens of countries because of their faith in Christ—by tyrants, religious fanatics, gangsters, drug cartels, and radical secularists.  Being in the king’s service is risky.

Answering the king’s invitation also has demands, as we see in the parable of the “man not dressed in a wedding garment” (22:11-12).  The story supposes that garments were available to everyone whom the king’s servants brought into the banquet hall, “bad and good alike” (22:10).  It’s a fine image of the Church.  James Joyce described the Church as “here comes everybody,” meaning saints and sinners, educated and illiterate, every race and nation.  “Go out into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find” (22:9).  [Or we read at the end of St. Mark’s Gospel:  “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned” (16:15-16).]

When someone’s baptized, he or she’s presented with a new white robe, according to the Rite of Baptism.  That might be only a tiny symbolic piece of cloth for infants.  Adults usually put on an alb.  That’s the wedding garment for those brought in for the king’s feast.  It’s symbolic of the faith required for admission.  St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (3:27).

Poorly dressed guest to be thrown out
(Bernardo Strozzi)

Faith has to be put into action.  Baptism gives us a pass thru the pearly gates, but if our faith has been dead, if our lives have been wicked, then we’ll be naked, “not dressed in a wedding garment,” when we meet the King.  [In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul warns:  “Neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers … nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (6:9-10).  Those who do the works of darkness will be cast out of God’s kingdom of light “into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matt 22:13).]

Everyone’s invited to the king’s banquet.  Those who respond and clothe themselves in Christ will enjoy the feast.

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[1] Bracketed passages omitted at Villa Maria.