Daily Gospel Reflection
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October 15, 2023
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and 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 he 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.
The king 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 favorite chapter of Matthew’s Gospel is about heaven and how to get there in the presence of the God of the living—the beatific vision. I have wondered over the years why, after the rejection by those invited and filling the hall with “bad and good alike,” the king throws the one not dressed in a “wedding garment” into the darkness. Is this garment really about the right clothes?
On Ash Wednesday, when my wife and I visited campus to see our grandson and attend a basketball game, it was pouring down rain, yet the Basilica overflowed with students. This reflects the worthiness of so many who, dressed casually, seek to be with Christ the King. Whether in the Basilica or by attending Masses in chapels around campus like St. Charles Borromeo in Alumni, where I lived for four years, Holy Cross in Stanford, where my son resided, or St. Patrick in Dillon Hall where my grandson lives and experiences the “Milkshake Mass,” all are invited!
Our dress is not as important as what is inside our souls. Today’s parable uses garments to symbolize that we must be clothed in God’s gift of redemptive love. Celebrated in the Mass, this gift allows us to experience Christ’s Real Presence now and to “go in peace, to love and serve the Lord.”
Jesus wants all—saints and sinners—to be with him in heaven. We can all join the party, appropriately dressed in the love of God and the love of our family, friends, and all we meet by chance. A sign in a staff member’s office at Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley says, “Be kind to everyone you meet because you never know what silent burdens they carry.”
This is the wedding feast of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Lord, help us to find your way of sincerity, patience, and truth. May we always be humble in seeking your way, and may our faith be filled with the blessings of charity. Help us to do good, to stand upright, and to show others your saving power active in our lives. Amen.
Saint of the Day

St. Teresa of Avila is one of the Church’s great mystics, and was one of the first two women to be declared a doctor of the Church, due to her work reforming the Carmelite order, her mystical spiritual life and her luminous writing on contemplative prayer.
Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, on the eve of the Protestant Reformation in 1515, to a devoutly Catholic family. Her mother, Beatriz, read her many stories of the saints when she was a young child, and Teresa and her brother Rodrigo were particularly smitten by the stories of the martyrs. Their heads filled with the grandeur of holy self-sacrifice, Rodrigo and Teresa decided to run away to southern Spain where Christians were undergoing persecution. Apprehended by their uncle before they had even made it to the next town, Rodrigo and Teresa reluctantly returned home.
Teresa's mother, Beatriz, died when Teresa was just fourteen. Filled with grief and loneliness, Teresa turned to Mary and asked her to be her mother. From that hour on, Teresa claimed, "I never prayed to the Virgin in vain."
Teresa's natural zeal waned slightly throughout her teenage years. Teresa had charisma and charm in abundance, and she developed a wide circle of friends. Even in the midst of relishing the influence of her great beauty, style, and wit, Teresa felt miserable. When she continued her education at a convent of Carmelites, Teresa's passion for the religious life was reignited.
When Teresa turned twenty, she left home against her father’s wishes to join a Carmelite convent to become a religious sister. When she arrived at the Carmelite Monastery in Avila, she discovered an environment all too similar to the world she had left behind. Carmelite Monasteries by the 16th century had grown generally lax and materialistic. Convents were run on endowments, and the nuns were concerned about their social status and material wealth.

Teresa fell ill for several years—probably with a type of malaria—and dedicated herself to prayer while she lay in bed. When she was restored to health, Teresa became distracted by visitors and neglected her prayer. The death of her father prompted Teresa to begin focusing again on prayer.
Teresa's mysticism was certainly not instant—she describes a typical hour in meditation when she would fret away the hour wishing it would be over. Gradually, however, through practice and faithfulness, her prayer deepened. As she read the work of other Spanish mystics, Teresa began to develop a more intimate union with God.
Increasingly, she received consolation in prayer and began to experience God's voice and see visions of Christ. Many friends and advisors feared the visions came from the devil, not from God. After consultation with the Jesuit priest who would become her spiritual director, Francis Borgia, all of Teresa's doubts of the origins of these visions were removed.
From then on, she had many experiences of distinctly hearing divine speech, which filled her with peace and joy. Sometimes, even, Teresa's body was levitated during prayer. During these ecstasies, she felt certain that these gifts were from God, as they filled her with consolation: feelings of peace and joy in the overabundance of God’s love.
In one vision, she described an angel visiting her. The angel seemed to be burning with love of God, and pierced her heart with a lance, which caused Teresa physical pain and left Teresa, in her words, “all on fire with the great love of God.”

Just as her contemporary, Ignatius of Loyola, founded the Society of Jesus to reinvigorate the Church of Spain and respond to the Protestant Reformation, Teresa began her own work of reform inside of Carmel. Teresa began her efforts by founding new Carmelite monasteries, known as “discalced” Carmelites because they made it a habit to wear thin sandals instead of shoes. (Those sandals can be seen in the stained glass image of Teresa above.)
She found a partner in her work of reform in Carmel when she became close colleagues with St. John of the Cross, who was seeking similar reforms and a return to a more humble lifestyle in Carmelite monasteries for men. Besides being reformers, John and Teresa were both great mystics and their theological writing and poetry on prayer are spiritual classics.
Their efforts were met with great opposition by the Spanish Inquisition, leading to periods of imprisonment for both Teresa and John; but their work of reform also gained the support of several powerful figures, including King Philip II of Spain. Eventually, Pope Gregory XIII granted her order of the Discalced Carmelites their independence from those older convents who practiced the Mitigated Rule, and Teresa continued to found more communities dedicated to poverty, work, and obedience. By the time she died, Teresa had founded over fifteen new Carmelite communities.
Teresa's confessor requested that she begin to write down her insights from her visions and prayer, and Teresa wrote The Interior Castle, about the journey to mystical, contemplative union with God. Teresa's writings have significantly shaped Carmelite spirituality and broader Christian spirituality, as an indispensable guide to contemplative prayer. Like John of the Cross, Teresa's poetry also resonates with deep spiritual eloquence. Read one of her most famous poetic prayers below:
Nada te turbe,
nada te espante
todo se pasa,
Dios no se muda,
la paciencia
todo lo alcanza,
quien a Dios tiene
nada le falta
solo Dios basta.
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience
obtains all things.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.
Teresa's piety did not weaken her of a sense of humor. She was a highly intellectual woman with a quick wit. One of the most famous anecdotes that reveals her sense of humor is Teresa's journey through a rainstorm that left her soaking wet and covered in mud. "If this is how you treat your friends, Lord," quipped Teresa, "it's no wonder you have so few."
Teresa died on October 4 or 15, 1582 and was canonized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. She was declared a doctor of the Church alongside Catherine of Siena, on October 4, 1970, by Pope Paul VI. Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila are the first two women to be promoted to this honor. Some of Teresa's relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus. St. Teresa is an intercessor for an eclectic group of causes: for those suffering illnesses—particularly headaches—lacemakers, chess, Croatia, those who are ridiculed for their piety, and Spain.
To learn even more about Saint Teresa of Avila, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
St. Teresa of Avila, great spiritual doctor of the Church and contemplative mystic—pray for us!