Ordinary Time

Jan 16 2025

Come to the Table Worthily

A newspaper columnist expressed his chagrin at friends not responding to his “e-vites” (e-mail invitations), even after repeated requests. He speculated that some might have held off responding in case “something better” came along.

Jesus tells a tale of invited guests refusing to come to a wedding feast for a king’s son. This parable is aimed once again at the religious leaders, confronting them with their refusal to accept him as one sent by God. Matthew’s violent version of the parable differs from Luke’s peaceful one (14:16–24), since it reflects the destruction of Jerusalem that happened decades later. But it reminded both communities that the invitation to the kingdom of God could be refused.

Matthew also includes the expulsion of a man who comes in without a wedding garment. This seems seem a little strange since people had been called in off the streets. It serves as a reminder that showing up is not enough. The grace of being invited to the Lord’s table, then as now, does not excuse us from wearing the appropriate garment—that is, “putting on” Christ.

Every Eucharist tells us that we have a place at the table, and this table prepares us for another table at the end of time, when all peoples will gather and the Lord will move among us, wiping every tear away, and death shall be no more. We are a people of many tables—of the word, the Eucharist, the world, and the kingdom of God.

Consider/Discuss

Do you see yourself as one who has been invited to have a place at many tables?
What does “putting on Christ” mean to you?
How do you think about the end time when all will gather?

Responding to the Word

We pray to respond wholeheartedly to God’s invitation to that final gathering place where rich food and choice wines will be served and our shepherd God, who even now spreads a table before us, will move among us. We can ask the Spirit to help us wear Christ well.

Jan 16 2025

Scripture Study for

Isaiah depicts a scene of permanent victory, abundant feasting, and life without end. He sees a high mountain on which a sumptuous feast, probably the banquet of the end of time, is prepared for all people. It is also on this mountain that God destroys death. Once death is destroyed there will be no cause for tears. Instead, there will be rejoicing. On that day of fulfillment, the people will acclaim the God to whom they looked for salvation. The hand of God, the symbol of God’s power, will rest on this holy mountain, bringing to fulfillment all of God’s promises and blessings.

Paul is not speaking here of the ordinary trials and sufferings that invade every life. He is talking about the tribulations that will engulf all people at the onslaught of the end time, the suffering known as the “birth pangs of the Messiah.” For Paul, the burdens of his ministry form the avenue by which he enters this time of tribulation. He does not make light of the help that the Philippians must have offered him. Acting this way, they actually participated in his ministerial endeavors, and he is grateful. For this reason, they too are promised a share in the glory of the new age.

Once again Jesus is in confrontation with the leaders of the people. The apocalyptic character of the parable he tells is unmistakable. The metaphor of a banquet to describe the delights of the age of fulfillment can be traced as far back as the ancient prophets (see Isaiah 25:6). An interim exists between the initial invitation to the wedding banquet and the announcement that the banquet is ready. This interim resembles the period of time between the invitation to participate in the age of fulfillment and one’s entrance into that age. The point of the parable is clear: enjoyment of the time of fulfillment is open to all, but guaranteed to none.

Jan 15 2025

Bearing Fruit: Not Just for Vineyards

God’s relationship with people is at the heart of both the first reading and the Gospel, but there is a difference. In Isaiah, destruction comes to the vineyard; in the Gospel, it comes to those entrusted with the care of the vineyard.

Isaiah’s song highlights the people’s failure—the house of Israel and the people of Judah—to bear fruit, to provide the Lord who has lovingly tended this vineyard with anything more than wild grapes, that is, bloodshed and violence against each other. Because of this, the owner will turn his back on them, no longer giving care but letting it be trampled underfoot, no longer pruning or hoeing, but allowing thorns and briers to take over. This song is demanding conversion. In Jesus’ parable, the focus is on those entrusted with the care of the vineyard. Jesus addresses the chief priests and the elders in Jerusalem, not only criticizing their failure to care for the people adequately, but also their rejection of those God sent to call them to conversion. The parable calls all religious leaders to remember that authority is for service.

Bearing fruit in our lives, being true and honorable, just and pure, lovely and gracious is the fruit God desires from all, as Paul reminds the Philippians. God’s people, but especially their leaders, have a responsibility to bear fruit. No one is let off the hook. God expects a return for love so lavishly given.

Consider/Discuss

Have you ever tended a plant or grown a garden? What did this experience teach you?
What fruitfulness God is asking of you?
Is there anything that prevents you from making a return to God for all that has been given to you?

Responding to the Word

St. Paul calls us to set aside anxiety and to make known to God any requests we have for more fruitful lives. In prayer we will find that “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Jan 15 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading tells a story about a vineyard. The vine dresser diligently performed each step of the process to produce grapes. However, not only was there no abundant harvest, but wild, useless grapes sprang forth. This unnatural yield was not due to poor cultivation. Rather, the vineyard itself had failed. It becomes clear that the prophet is really talking about the Israelites. Judgment is now passed on the vineyard (the people). God invested so much in the future of this people, and they scorned the attention of the vineyard owner. What began as a poem about friendship and devotion ends as a message of doom.

The tenderness with which Paul regards the Philippians is evident here. They are anxious and Paul offers them encouragement and direction. Rather than be anxious, they are admonished to turn to God in prayer. Paul is not advising some kind of magical exercise that will right every wrong, but an openness to God that itself can help people bear trying circumstances. They will then know the peace that only God can give, the peace that surpasses all understanding. He then exhorts them to live lives patterned after Christ. Christian thinking and behavior will open the believer to the kind of peace that only God can give.

Jesus too tells a story about a vineyard. When he is finished, he turns to the leaders and asks them to provide a legal ruling on the situation. They must have known that the parable was highlighting their own resistance to God’s directives, and they also would have known that whatever judgment they might suggest would fall on their heads as well. The sentence they passed was quite harsh, but it was actually no harsher than the conduct of the tenants. Just as the vineyard is taken from the wicked tenants and given to others, so the kingdom of God will be taken from the leaders and given to people who will produce fruits.

Jan 15 2025

Doing “Yes”

In The Secret Life of Bees, August, an older black woman, is talking about “the problem with people” to Lily, a younger white woman who has run away from an abusive father. Lily has said that people don’t really know what matters. But August says the deeper problem is that people do know what matters, but don’t choose it.

God tells Ezekiel that virtue’s proof is in choosing to do the right thing. What you choose to do matters. So be careful not to go off the right path at the end of your days. On the other hand, you might be off the right path for years, but end up hopping back on at the very end, and you will have life. It doesn’t sound very fair; nevertheless, it’s where you are when the end comes that counts. And you don’t know when the end will come.

Jesus confronts the religious leaders with a parable. A father asks his two sons to do some work in the vineyard. One talks a good game but never makes it into the field; the other refuses outright, but then goes and does what his father asked. In telling this parable, Jesus compares these leaders unfavorably to the tax collectors and prostitutes. The elders must have been shocked.

“Have in you that same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus,” writes Paul to his beloved Philippians. The attitude he urged on them was giving oneself for the sake of others—even unto death. In this way, we not only speak but also do “Yes.” Choose to live Christ.

Consider/Discuss

Can you think of a time when you said yes to someone’s request but did not carry it out?
Do you think of Jesus as one who emptied himself, even of life, trusting his Father to fill him?
How is God calling you to empty yourself at this time, doing “nothing out of selfishness, but regarding others as more important than yourselves”?

Responding to the Word

In the Our Father we pray that God will not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. We pray that we will be obedient to the Father’s will to the point of death so that we will be raised into eternal life and join in the song of exaltation, confessing Jesus Christ as Lord.