Dear friends in Christ

The image of a banquet is often used in the Bible to represent salvation and the intimacy of relationship that we shall have with God. Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20). God repeats over and over again, His desire to engage in a loving dialogue with his creatures, a dialogue, which will take definitive form in Heaven. What so far has been our response to the thousand petitions we are constantly receiving from the Lord? How is our prayer? Are we entering into close relationship with the Lord? Do we excuse ourselves from leading lives of greater dedication? Do we feel responsible for bringing the divine invitation to others? Are we concerned about the salvation of the people we know? There are no good excuses for missing the banquet of the Lord. The excuses the people give in the parable of the Mass this Sunday are essentially the same sort of excuses people use today. The problems lies in giving priority to earthly realities over eternal realities. St Augustine exclaims: Help us, Lord, to disown our vain excuses. We want to attend the banquet ... Don't allow our pride or sensuality or attachments or idle curiosity to get in the way of our attendance. Make sure that we show up...Who, after all, is going to be there? Beggars, the sick, the crippled, the blind ... We will arrive as the poor people that we are. We have been invited by the wealthy one who became poor for our sake, thereby enriching the poverty of the poor. We will come as sick people, since we need the divine doctor to cure our ills. We will come as lame people, and we will tell him: 'Keep steady my steps according to thy promise' (Ps 118:133). We will come as blind people and we will ask him: Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death' (Ps 12:4).

God bless you all in this coming week!

Msgr Kevin Hale