This Sunday, October 11, 2026, is the 28th Sunday in ordinary Time. The Gospel is Matthew 22:1-14 where a king gives a wedding feast for his son, but the people who have been invited refuse to come.
We are like people invited to the wedding feast, and we need to come prepared for the celebration dressed in our wedding garment. We are invited to the Eucharistic feast, but some refuse to come. Some go about other business and other busy-ness. Some might not come because they don’t “get anything out of it.” The main purpose of the Mass is not to make us feel better. We celebrate the Mass in order to give glory to God, and to grow in our Christian journey toward holiness. We learn more about how to think and act through the words, gestures, and rituals of the Mass. We commit ourselves to live for others through receiving the broken Body and poured out Blood of Christ. We are becoming the hands and feet and voice of Christ in the world. We are blessed and sent forth to make the world better each day through the kind of lives we lead.
We are invited to the Eucharistic feast, and we need to come prepared. We need to be open to listen, ready to give God praise and thanksgiving, and ready to be attentive to everything and everyone there. We need to have “Participation of the Heart,” a willingness and eagerness to uncover what God might be teaching us that day. When we gather for the Eucharist, we know that Christ is present in word and sacrament, in the priest leading the prayer, and in the people gathered together in Christ’s name. What response can we make except to bow down in worship?
We are invited to the Eucharistic feast as a foretaste of the great heavenly banquet of the Lamb, where there will be “a feast of rich food and choice wines,” where we will rejoice because God has saved us.
Let us also pray these prayers found in Sunday’s readings:
Isaiah 25:6-10 – God provides rich food, choice wines; God wipes away our tears. “Let us rejoice and be glad that [God] has saved us!”
Psalm 23 refrain – Help me to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20 – “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” May God fully supply what I need in accord with the glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
