The real story………

Image via WikipediaThis is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary time and this week’s reading is as follows:

Isaiah 25: 6-10 Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 Matthew 22:1-14

The real story………taken from the bulletin of the Church Of The Holy Cross.

We have really strong and terrible readings today. The readings are terrible in the sense that they show us a side of God with which we are generally not very comfortable. We prefer to meet a God who is infinitely patient, who pardons us even when we are completely against Him. We prefer the God shown us in the Gospel of John, who tells us: I have not come to condemn but to save.

We need to read these readings carefully. Sometimes we get caught only in this awful sense that God will condemn us. The First Reading from Isaiah and the Gospel from Matthew are much more nuanced than that. It is clear that these readings refer to people who simply will not budge at all from their rejection of God and of His Christ.

On the other hand, we need to feel this blast of the Lord's frustration with those who will not accept His invitation, those who will not even listen to His word at all. Too often the mercy and compassion of God become justifications for our not doing very much. We dilly and dally with sin and with temptations, wanting to be better but not wanting to take the tough decisions that will actually change our lives. We are truly human in that sense but not with the redeemed humanity of our Lord Jesus.

We need to become a person such as we see in the second reading, from the Philippians: true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and gracious. How difference our lives can be when we begin to live for the Lord. We can stop living in the fear of having to give up our sinfulness and embrace the strong life of those who still sin, but whose hearts have become set on doing the will of the Lord.

How do we get from this fear of giving up our sinfulness to that place where our hearts are set on doing the will of the Lord? The only way is to keep asking God to change us and transform us. We cannot make this change by our own will power. It is a change that is given to us as a free gift from the Lord our God if we keep asking for it.

We must ask with sincerity and truth, even acknowledging that perhaps we don't really want to give up all of our sinfulness, but asking the Lord to remove all within us that is contrary to His desire and will.

May the Lord give us strength and courage this Sunday as we celebrate these divine mysteries once again. May we be willing to be transformed.