BLESSED IS THE ONE WHO WILL DINE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Phil 2,5-11; Ps 21; Lk 14,15-24
6 NOVEMBER

In the kingdom of heaven one enters by invitation. But this is a particular and special invitation. You must leave, abandon every previous occupation and go to the banquet hall. We can compare the invitation to the wedding to the vocation of Abraham, Moses and the Apostles of the Lord. The gap with the first is total, with no longer any link.

The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” Abram went as the Lord directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran (Gen 12,1-4).

After this Moses returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go back, please, to my kinsmen in Egypt, to see whether they are still living.” Jethro replied, “Go in peace.” In Midian the Lord said to Moses, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead.” So Moses took his wife and his sons, and started back to the land of Egypt, with them riding the ass. The staff of God he carried with him (Ex 4,18-20).

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plough and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9,57-62).

Whoever wants to take food in the kingdom of God is called to leave his thoughts to assume the thoughts of God. He has to be undressed of his will to clothe himself with God’s will. He is invited to abandon his heart of stone, letting every day be made a new heart. The invited of God are anchored to the before. They remain in the before. They do not pass into the after. Who remains in the before might never have the after. You leave and you enter. You abandon and you arrive. If you do not abandon, you do not leave, you might never arrive.

The Lord does not want the room to remain empty. He send his servants to call every man, of every condition. The Lord does not care for the before. He cares that his invitation is accepted. This is the true greatness of our God. The before without Him is always without truth. It is He who gives truth to our after. Accepting his invitation, the man enters his truth. We are always bad administrators of the mysteries of God when we want a before of truth to enter the banquet hall, which for us is the Gospel, while we are on earth. From the Gospel then we pass into eternal light.

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.'”

Today, we want the before without the Gospel to remain even after one is in the Gospel. This is impossible. The before is always without the Gospel. The after always in the Gospel.

Faithful Virgin, Angels and, Saints, help us to bring our whole life into the Gospel.