Our Lady of the Angels Church issued the following announcement on Oct. 11

Often when we ask a person about a trip that they took they will respond by saying: “the food and wine and beer were great”. The fact is that we so often connect with each other through food and drink and through the experience of food and drink. For that reason it should not surprise us that Isaiah describes meeting our God on a holy mountain by saying: “the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” Jesus, in the Gospel passage from St. Matthew today, also says: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.”

The feast and the food and drink are important because the description helps us to connect with the experience described as an enjoyable one that we can relate to and one that conjures up in our minds good and enjoyable experiences that we have had with feasts and festivals that have been a part of our lives. Such a Feast we have been invited to every time we celebrate the Eucharist, since Jesus transformed the comfortable and intimate setting of a meal to offer us Himself as food and drink for the journey. Of course one of the saddest realities for many, who are not able to come to church during this pandemic or who just do not feel safe being with a crowd, is that they are not able to partake of the banquet and the meal that has been prepared for us. Hopefully the longing that this lack plants in our heart will make us all the more eager to look forward with great expectation to the day that we will be able to move about freely and come to receive the Lord in the Eucharist.

The key teaching in the readings today is not just about a Feast but more about the fact that all have been invited but no one is forced to come to the Feast. It is incumbent upon us to accept the invitation in order to be part of the Feast. In the parable that Jesus tells, we hear of the man who comes into the wedding feast after being invited, but who is rejected and cast out because he is not dressed in a wedding garment. In other passages of the scriptures we see that the wedding garment can represent the baptismal garment, but it is not enough to have received that garment many years ago. Is our baptismal commitment a living reality in our lives that not only points to a moment in time when I became a beloved son or daughter but more importantly points to a way of life that proclaims by my words and actions that I am indeed right now a beloved son or daughter?

The Feast is prepared, the invitations have been sent out, am I prepared, through the life I am living, to enter and partake of the Feast?

Original source can be found here.