Dear Parishioners of St. James:
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Continuing our teaching during this Eucharistic Revival Year, we acknowledge the adoration that Jesus Christ commands as the true and only Son of the Eternal Father in heaven. It is easy to equate the parable of the king holding a banquet for his son in today’s Gospel with the banquet of Holy Mass to which our God and Father calls us every Sunday.
God invites us repeatedly to Holy Mass, but most people refuse to come or excuse themselves from divine worship to pursue their selfish interests. In the end, the parable teaches, “the king was enraged” and ordered people into the banquet who were not prepared for such an event resulting in the expulsion of a man who was not properly “dressed” from the banquet into the darkness outside. The point is, either we respond to God the Father’s invitation to Holy Mass now or risk being cast out of heaven when God gathers all mankind at the end of time when, “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).
Everyone will either worship God now or later. If we worship Him now by responding to His initiation to Holy Mass, then we will please the Father. If we do not worship God by not coming to the banquet of the Son of God (Holy Mass), we risk losing our souls by being cast into the darkness. As Jesus says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen” (Mt. 22:14).
God bless you,
Fr. Geary
Saint James Catholic Church 