Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God

4 NOVEMBER (Lk 14,15-24)

Isaiah had already prophesied that the eternal kingdom of God is in every way similar to a banquet. All the peoples of the earth will take part in it. It will not be a banquet reserved for a few men. All might have access to it. All can share in it. This is a universal admirable vision, characteristic of this prophet. We can say that Isaiah is the prophet of universality, since he is the prophet of the one God, Creator of the universe.

O Lord, you are my God, I will extol you and praise your name; For you have fulfilled your wonderful plans of old, faithful and true. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; The castle of the insolent is a city no more, nor ever to be rebuilt. Therefore a strong people will honor you, fierce nations will fear you. For you are a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in distress; Shelter from the rain, shade from the heat. As with the cold rain, as with the desert heat, even so you quell the uproar of the wanton. On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!” For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trodden down as a straw is trodden down in the mire. He will stretch forth his hands in Moab as a swimmer extends his hands to swim; He will bring low their pride as his hands sweep over them. The high-walled fortress he will raze, and strike it down level with the earth, with the very dust (Is 25, 1-12).

The prophet does not say who has the right, who will be invited and what the conditions to participate are. Jesus reveals the modes. At the banquetyou participate by invitation accepted. The Lord sends his messengers to call the guests, so that they leave everything and to the celebration. Withgreat regret even from the Lord that had invited with much joy and infinite hope, all the guests refuse to participate, who for one reason and who for another. Their daily occupations forbid them to go to the banquet. They even ask to be excused for this impossibility. The Lord does not get lost, does not lose heart, does not give up the banquet and sends for every man. Nobody must be excluded. All must be forced to enter. The banquet must be consumed.

One of his fellow guests on hearing this said to him, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God.” He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’ But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, ‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come.’ The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.’ The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'”

Analyzing well and reflecting on the meaning of the parable, the truth that springs from it is one. In the eternal banquet of heaven one enters byinvitation. The call is to conversion and faith in the Gospel. It is to reset one’s personal life, doing everything in view of eternity. Time is a very shortsegment of our lives. It is a segment that must be all lived in the perspective of what will come after time and after our death. If we make of timeour eternity, we waste it, we lose it, we use it only to be excluded from the banquet of life. This is our wisdom: living all time to make our blessed eternity fructify. Today, this is impossible because the false preachers say that no invitation is needed any more. It is for everyone and always.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us the intelligence of the Gospel.