28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year A
Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10: Philippians 4:12-14.19-20; Matthew 22:1-14
Go to the Crossroads
The Parable of the Wedding Feast in the Gospel invites us to reflect on our personal invitation to enter the reign of God. Unfortunately, in the parable, the invited guests refuse to come to the feast and mistreat the servants who went to call them! The king then orders his servants to go to the crossroads and find everyone they could and bring them into the wedding hall. The order was followed; servants brought in all the people they could find (note ‘bad and good alike’) and the hall was filled with guests.
I want to look at the term ‘crossroads’ today. For me, as I look at the word crossroads, it looks like a situation where I am unable to decide, like coming to an intersection and don’t know which way to turn! (Of course, a map would help provided I know where I want to go! Fun aside!). I feel the invited guests were at the crossroads; trying to decide whether to go to the feast or not and choose not to go! Whether to respect the servants or not and end up mistreating them! The king also is at the crossroads, after experiencing rejection by the invited guests, to cancel the wedding or go ahead and end up getting everyone else in at the wedding hall! The servants themselves are at the crossroads, as they go out and decide to bring in all people, should they bring only few (only good) or everyone and end up bringing in everyone they could find (Good and bad alike)! And, surprise, surprise, even the guests at the wedding hall also are on crossroads, whether to wear the wedding garment or not and all wear it except one!
Life throws us at crossroads all the time. We must make decisions, almost every step of our way. We struggle to choose as, in many cases, we do not know the consequences of those choices. But we must go ahead and decide.
The Gospel today puts before us the choice to enter the reign of God. Do I accept or reject? Do I choose to wear the wedding garment or refuse? The choice is ours.
It always a struggle when it comes to accept the invitation of God (crossroads!). We want to do many things and we feel we have the freedom to do so. And God respects that freedom. We are free to choose what is set before us. But all the choices do come with their own demand. The demand for choosing to enter the reign of God is doing God’s will. And God’s will is nothing but to follow how Jesus lived. And to live as Jesus lived can be hard but not impossible.
As we are all at the crossroads of our life, choosing to enter the reign of God or not, let us pray that may we make right decision and be ready to accept the demands. God will never push me to choose this or that, but God inspires me to make a right decision. Let us continue to hear the voice of God in the silence of our hearts and reach the crossroads so that we can choose the right direction to go in our journey of life. Amen.
