October 15, 2023
Matthew 22: 1-14
Invitation to joy
Today’s Gospel presents us with the image of a God who loves celebrations, even as far as to their being an obsession. This reading involves a wedding banquet.
The banquet is ready, the food workers are hard at work, the menu is ready and places have been prepared. But alas, certain special guests are preoccupied with their own personal business and their material interests; others have even killed the servants whom the king has sent to remind them that they had been invited to the marriage feast of his son. The guests refuse. Despite the refusal, of some guests, God wants to hold the celebration.
God again invites men and women to seal his alliance. Every moment he invites men and women to seal his alliance, his friendship for a peaceful, fraternal world.
The heart of the Father is as large as the universe. It is to everyone that the call is addressed, to whom the invitation is extended. Despite the defection of close friends, the betrayal of collaborators and the elite who cowardly recuse themselves, the house of the Lord will never be empty nor his banquet without guests. The list of those called is never filled; it remains open to “bad as well as the good”, to the marginalized of every kind. The doors are open to all. Nevertheless, the “yes” which opens the doors must include a dress code of wedding attire.
Jesus is our clothing, our nuptial outfit in adopting the sentiments of love, sweetness, compassion; like him we will be able to invite the blind, the lame, the crippled, the poor to our table, so that everyone will taste the joy of the feast.
“Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the lamb.” To be happy, may we be covered by the mantle of justice, peace and love of the Lord.
Matthew 22: 1-14
“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Meet Sister Adrienne Kapela, SNDdeN
Sister Adrienne Kapela was born on November 8, 1955 at Kisantu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She entered the postulate of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur on January 9, 1975 and made her perpetual vows in 1986. She completed her studies at the Facultés Catholiques de Kinshasa (today the Université du Congo). After her licenciate in Theology and human sciences, she worked for a number of years as a teacher and director of the boarding school, then as prefect of studies at the Lycée de Kisantu, Lycée de Mpese and the Lycée de Kisenso for many years. She then became assistant director of novices and junior Sisters for a number of years. She served as a Provincial Counselor and Superior of the Community of Kimwenza. She then became mistress of novices and was chosen as a delegate to the General Chapter of 2008. She is currently working in Cuvilly, France in parish pastoral service.
