Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 19, 2021
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables
saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
My daughter and I are preparing for her first confession. We brought out a baptismal gown and talked about the sins, both venial and mortal, that can mar the beauty of this pure white garment. In her six-year-old naivety, she can’t believe that anyone she knows might have any serious stains on their garments. “Mom, I don’t know anyone who has committed a mortal sin, right?” My heart catches at her innocence. The adult world of grave and serious sin is not visible to her eyes. The stains on our souls are not normally visible to those we pass on the street.
In today’s gospel we meet a man “not dressed in a wedding garment.” He is not one of those originally invited to the wedding feast. Instead he is one of those gathered from the main roads, “bad and good alike” that the king orders his servants to find. When the king addresses him as a friend, the man says nothing. He does not apologize for his offense to the dignity of the king’s son, does not explain that he was just out in the street a moment ago, does not fall at the feet of the king and beg for mercy. Nothing.
How I long to be gathered into the wedding hall. How I long to hear the king call me, “my friend!” How I fear that my garment, too, will be found wanting. Will I have the response ready to my lips, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!”
Thankfully, the gospel assures me that the king desires me in his hall. And I can prepare for my final encounter with the king. Just like my daughter, in the confessional I practice my response to the inquiry, and I’m one step closer to arriving at the banquet hall properly dressed.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you have sent prophets, apostles, and your only begotten Son to proclaim the coming of your Kingdom. We have often hardened our hearts, refusing to heed your countless invitations. We have mistreated your servants, and, by our sins, we are guilty of nailing your Son to the cross. In your loving mercy, forgive our sins. Give us grace to maintain the purity of our baptism and to faithfully live out our baptismal vocation to a life of holiness so that we may one day share in the banquet of your kingdom, where you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. John Eudes captured the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary by honoring them in the liturgy. Thanks to this saint, Holy Cross priests have as their patron Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and Notre Dame has a Basilica dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
In fact, even though John was canonized a saint after the Basilica was constructed, he is depicted there in a stained glass window leading people in devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
John’s parents were farmers in the Normandy region of France, and were childless until they went to a nearby shrine to Mary. Nine months later, in 1601, John was born, and five more children arrived after him.
John was educated at a Jesuit school, and he went on to seek ordination. He was a very good preacher, and gained the admiration of his superiors by his excellent conduct. He spent his early priesthood at an oratory—a special church (not a parish) set aside for prayer and Mass. When plague broke out in Normandy, John volunteered to return to his region to serve the sick there. He spent two months ministering to the sick and dying.
He returned to the oratory and lived there until the plague reached that area. Again, he went out into the city to tend to the sick and dying. To prevent his brother priests from becoming infected from him, he did not live in the rectory—he lived in a large cask or barrel in a field; nuns from a nearby convent brought him food.
He went on to become a distinguished preacher, and would travel the countryside offering missions to parishes to reinvigorate the faithful. He was widely known as the best preacher people had ever heard.
During his travels, he came to see that the priests needed as much reform as the faithful, so he concentrated his efforts on seminary training. He established several seminaries that were dedicated to producing zealous and well-trained parish priests.
John’s spirituality focused on the love of Jesus and Mary, symbolized in their sacred hearts. He began a feast day for people to honor the heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus; these feast days spread quickly and were taken up around the Church. While John was not the first to be devoted to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he was the first to capture this devotion in the liturgy, which gave the Church a way to participate and spread it.
He died after giving a parish mission in his old age that left him sick and weak—he preached outdoors, in the winter, every day for nine weeks, and never recovered. He died on this date in 1680.
“Our wish, our object, our chief occupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires, and his disposition live and reign there,” St. John wrote. “All our religious efforts should be directed to this end. It is the work that God has given us to do unceasingly.”
St. John Eudes, you helped people form their hearts in the shape of Jesus’ Sacred Heart—pray for us!