Filipinos have an
irredeemable penchant for fiesta celebration.
We celebrate feasts at all cost. Just imagine the Sinulog of Cebu. When the feast of the Santo Nino is approaching,
all roads lead to Cebu City. Of course, when talking about fiesta celebration,
one cannot help but mention one’s experience with the people of Bohol! The
whole month of May is an uninterrupted fiesta celebration. This fondness for
feasts lends itself to our easy appreciation of the motif of today’s parable of
the wedding feast (Mt. 22:1-14).
Right away we would react with disbelief
to the parable’s account of the guests’ act of refusal or attitude of
indifference to the invitation of the King who gave a wedding feast for his
son. A true-blooded Filipino does not
refuse a feast. Come on! He would travel
half of the globe in order to be part of the celebration!
In the Philippines, when organizing a
feast, the organizers’ primary and most thorny concern is not whether or not
the guests will come but how to control the onslaught of a horde of mamistahay (those who come ready for the
feast) which probably is as devastating as the storm Yolanda.
The
Kingdom of God as a banquet. The parable compares
the Kingdom of God to a feast, a wedding banquet, to where all peoples are
invited. When the intended guests refused to come, (thanks be to God!), the
banquet was opened to anyone in the streets, “bad and good alike.” The Kingdom of God then becomes universal.
Everyone can partake of the abundance of the celebration. This banquet refers to the triumphant
celebration of the eschatological fulfilment of time. This is our destiny. When history shall have
come to its fulfilment and finally gives way to the Kingdom of God, all peoples
will be together in that joyful celebration as in a banquet hosted by our
loving God. Who would dare choose to be
left out?
On the way to that destiny, the
Eucharist is the banquet through which we have a foretaste of what is to come.
In the Eucharistic celebration, we come together as one family and partake of
the meal in the spirit of solidarity or of communion, with hope for the final fulfilment
of God’s plan of salvation. We are a
people of hope; every moment of Eucharistic celebration enkindles such hope. But we have to ask this: When we celebrate, who are left out? This is
a pastoral question of great importance.
My observation is that one significant sector that tends to be left out
of our Eucharistic celebrations is the youth of today. More and more the youth are finding our
Eucharistic celebration as strange... and boring! We’ve got to muster all our remaining creative
juices to attract them.
The
requirement in the Kingdom. Another point in the
parable is the requirement of “proper attire” in the Kingdom of God. The man
who came to the banquet without a wedding garment was thrown out to the dark where
punishment awaits him (vv.12-13). The
proper garment for the wedding banquet stands for the quality of active Christian
life. This means putting on Jesus
Christ. This is trying on the garb of
Christ’s values. Nominal membership is
not enough in the Kingdom just as nominal Catholics do no good to the Church. One
can only be worthy of God’s Kingdom when he puts on the cloth of self-giving,
leading a life of service and love; when he dons the cloth of forgiveness,
letting go of any harboured hatred and desire for vengeance; when he tries on the
cloth of truth and justice, correcting the culture of corruption and social
inequalities in our communities. The
Kingdom of God is incompatible with the “disvalues” of this sinful world. While,
according to God’s plan, all has a place in this Kingdom, those who persist in
their sins by rejecting Christ and everything He stands for would naturally
find themselves out of place.
Family
meals as our daily banquet. Final point, our
participation in the feast of God’s Kingdom may well be learned through our
faithfulness to our simple family meal each day. There used to be a good advertisement
on TV portraying the value of sharing meal as a family.
The parents were worried about the prevalent practice of premarital sex among the
young generation of today. At table, the parents told their son that during
their time, his father waited till they got married. The son said, “Sabi ng tropa, ang tunay na lalaki ay
binibinyagan.” The parents were quite alarmed and asked, “Eh, anong sabi mo?” The son replied, “Ang tunay na lalaki ay marunong maghintay.” The ads showed the
parents’ sigh of relief and concluded to this effect: There’s a good chance of effectively guiding
the growing up children to the right values when families share meals together.
Amen to that.
We want to bring back the youth to the
community of God? We want every Christian to put on the values of Christ? Call
me traditional, but I am convinced that the simple gathering of the families
each day sharing meals together can still do the trick. The family meal is also
a foretaste of the banquet of God’s Kingdom. The family meal is the perfect
wholesome gathering where we all learn how to enjoy life and to manifest love
for one another. It is where we learn the basics of putting on Christ in our
lives. It is the feast to where we are all invited to partake each beautiful
day.
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