28th Sunday - Fr. Leo
“Some ignored the invitation and went away...”
These words from today's gospel, taken from Matthew, sum up the point of the passage. From the beginning of creation, God has reached out to us to make us his own. The first rejection came from Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Even with that, God did not give up. God sent the prophets to call us back to himself, but they too were rejected again and put to death. Finally, he sent is own Son to share our humanity that we might share in his divinity. This call still stands and is voiced in every celebration of the Eucharist.
While the Gospel deals with the Jewish rejection of the messiah and God’s subsequent invitation to the gentiles, the points for us to consider are the words, “Some ignored the invitation and went away.” These words lead us to ask ourselves, how do we respond to God’s invitation to be in relationship with him? How deep does our desire and response to God’s love go?
The Church keeps God’s invitation to new life alive. We celebrate the Eucharist daily and build our programs around understanding and living out the grace of discipleship. Our participation is both external and internal. Both responses are needed. From the exterior and interior the grace of inspiration is given. What matters is our response to God’s invitation. We are free to choose in every moment by all that we say and do. Let us pray then, that we will not be the ones who ignored the invitation and walked away.