28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Everyone is Invited to God’s Table of Plenty

The main symbol of our readings for today’s 28th Sunday in ordinary time is feast and banquet. Feast and banquet in the bible is a symbol for what it means to live with God when God finally reigns in our lives. There will be a feast and a banquet of abundant food and drinks in the future when God finally reigns.

A feast and banquet, however, is a significant symbol not just for Christianity but for many cultures and races. The images of wedding and fiesta in the barrios easily come to my mind when I hear of banquet and feast.  Everyone from the barrio is invited to partake of the abundant food and drink in the event.  This experience is a foretaste of the great banquet and feast that God has prepared for us at the end of time. There will be abundant food and drinks and this is open to everyone, whatever race, color, gender, religion and culture we may have belong, as long as we have accepted God’s invitation.

The biblical image of banquet and feast evokes two important characteristic about the Kingdom of God: abundance and inclusiveness. These two are mutually interrelated to each other.  God created an abundance of food that is more than enough for everyone. No one should go hungry and not enjoy the abundant food that comes from God On the other hand, no one has the right to amass the food only for themselves. Food is abundant and available for everyone. There is no place in the banquet of the Lord where food is concentrated only on the few or food is deprived or limited to many. There is no place in the banquet of the Lord where only a few enjoys the prosperity of God’s abundant blessings while many suffer from poverty and deprived of God’s abundant blessings.

Our readings today depict these theme and values. In the First Reading from Isaiah we have a graphic description of the great banquet God prepared for his people.

On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
a feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples,
the web that is woven over all nations;
he will destroy death forever.
The Lord GOD will wipe away
the tears from every face;
the reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.

In the Gospel, Jesus described the Kingdom of God as a marriage feast for a king’s son with abundant food and drinks. The king sends out his servants to invite all people to come to the wedding.

“Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’

So God’s banquet is plentiful and God invited everyone. But the problem is few came or no one wants to come. Why? Because one key element that is needed in order to realize God’s future banquet now is change—taking a different path and leaving behind our present attitudes, values and lifestyle.  In the parable we saw that those who did not come were either too involved in their own worldly interests to be bothered. Worst, they seized the king’s messengers, “maltreated them and killed them”.

Or perhaps the ones who refuse the invitation could not believe that the King invited them and a great banquet awaits them. This could not be. Because the banquet that they were used to is a banquet where food and drink is not overflowing and not everyone is invited. The promise of a plentiful banquet open to everyone seemed too preposterous and hard to take.

This is perhaps why the parable ends on a pessimistic note. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” This is a sad fact that although everyone is being called to experience the love of God in their lives, relatively few will take the plunge and really try to taste that experience. The majority take what they regard as the safer path of looking for happiness in making money, building a career, indulging in sexual pleasures, rising in the social scale, surrounding themselves with material abundance…

Banquet and feast is not just an image for God’s future kingdom in Christian tradition but is also the image for the Eucharist. The Eucharist is a banquet and feast that celebrates God’s plentiful blessings and God’s inclusive love for everyone especially the rejects, abandoned, sinners and different. The Eucharist is a counter symbol, even a protest, to the deplorable reality in our society and world today of division, intolerance, discrimination and domination.

God’s abundant banquet that is open to everyone may be hard to take. God’s invitation may be hard to accept as this demands transformation in each of us. But God’s promise is too good to pass.  God proved this with his own life—the life of his own son. So come now, let us come to the Lord’s banquet!

I am passionate about the intersection between new media and technology. I continue to research and apply new media in theology and vice-versa. I am also a fan of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and her continuing relevance in today’s digital world.
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