28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A By Tobe Eze

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

FIRST READING
Isaiah 25:6—10a

SECOND READING
Philippians 4:12—14, 19—20

GOSPEL

Matthew 22:1—14

WHY ON THE MOUNTAIN? AND WHY PUNISHMENT?

Isaiah 55:1, the Lord said “All you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no money make hadte , buy and eat, come you, buy wine and milk without money and without any price.” Why should God leave every plain land around and go up to the mountain to prepare banquet for his people? The answer is too simple. In Igbo there is this adage that onye otu ukwu adighi aza akwaa okwuru, and another one says anu adighi ike agaghi ebi ebe osisi ahaba di. And another adage says that ihe di mma na afia aru inyeta. We all know that climbing the mountain is not an easy job. If you are to climb mountain, you must prepare for it for it is not meant for those who are not prepared. If you are to follow Christ, be prepared to climb mountain so that you get to the place the banquet is prepared, and if you try to go up unprepared, you will fall off to where there will be gnashing of teeth and that will be your punishment for not being prepared. There are many different ways we climb that mountain, it is not through one way. Continue Reading.....................

In the first reading, Prophet Isaiah, as a prophet, he is telling us what God has for us and where it is. We cannot say that we are ignorance of it. God prepare good things for us each point in time in our lives and also send us messengers that tell us everything about God and his intention towards us. He does not leave us to perish despite all we are doing to him, despite all the evils we use to pay him in return.

In the second reading, St. Paul is teaching us how to live the life worthy of the banquet, life that is a pure preparation for the mountain or the way of climbing the mountain. Life of a through Christian. As Christians, we have to learn how to accept every situation we find ourselves. C P Varky is a Jesuit priest and a professor, in one of his books Be Human Be Holy he says, that “we should accept we cannot change and change what we can change. These are ways St. Paul is directing us to follow today.

Then, the Gospel is telling us what will happen on top of the mountain. How God has prepared everything for us and we refused coming and he is going out to get people from every other tribe, people and nation to get those who will eat what he prepared. For the fact that he is gathering every person does not mean we should not be on our different wedding dresses. We are to be ready anytime in our lives.

We must be ready for the climbing every point in time. The one that climbed without the inductions in the second reading was punished. He was feeling that he committed no sin by not putting on the wedding dress because he thought he was not invited.

The intro (Isaiah 55:1) is the reason why it is on the mountain. Causality in philosophy says that nothing comes from nothing. It is when we make enough effort to climb, that will be when God will help us to reach the top of the mountain. In Matthew 11:28 the Lord says, “come to me all who are over laboured and all are over loaded that I may give you rest”. He did not say, come to me so that I remove everything from you but to give us rest. When we leave the banquet prepared for us like in the parable, it will be given to another who cherishes it. Some of us do come up with the argument that we started Church before Abraham and that is why we think that it is the number of days spent in the church that will take us to heaven. The one who calls us knows that there are many other things to be attended to but he knows the best. Why do we go about giving excuses to God? God will understand. He may not because his ways are not ours. He prepares banquet on the mountain so that we contribute in our salvation like St. Augustine that said God created us without our help and he cannot save us without our help.

A child who fails to do what he/she is expected to do will be punished, if there is second chance, it will be given (purgatory) but if there is no second chance, the child must pay for his deeds. Some of us may ask, why the man was punished while he was not initially invited. When one calls us to go somewhere and we have seen that we are not neat, we ask the person to wait so that we prepare, and he did not do that. Again, he was initially preparing to go for AA Anuma Abia, and he did not prepare for it till when he was called. He was ready to follow those invited but he was not prepared. He knew that the banquet will take place but he did not care to prepare because he was thinking that he was not worthy of the banquet. Some of us do the same today. We are all expected to be ready for the kingdom. We all know that there is heaven and we want to go there but we do not prepare for it. We know that death is real but we think we are above death. Or that there is time. There is no time please, it will take us unawares like this man in the gospel.

Let us today know that, that heaven is not easy, it is only on mountain and if you fail to get it you will be punished. On this mountain, every good thing is waiting for us, the ball is now on our court to play it, let us be wise in playing it and score a clean goal and finally win at last. THANKS AND HAPPY SUNDAY.