GO TO THE CROSSROADS
Jesus knew very well the hard and monotonous life of the farm workers. He knew how they waited for the arrival of the Sabbath to «free» themselves from work. He saw them enjoy parties and weddings. What experience could be more joyful for those people than to be invited to a banquet and be able to sit down at the table with their neighbors to share a wedding feast?
Moved by his experience of God, Jesus began to speak to them in a surprising way. Life isn’t just this life of work and worries, sufferings and heartaches. God is preparing a final party for all God’s sons and daughters. God wants to see all of us sitting together with God, around the same table, enjoying forever a fully happy life.
Jesus wasn’t content to just talk thus about God. He himself invited everyone to his table and he ate even with sinners and the undesirables. He wanted to be for all people God’s great invitation to the final party. He wanted to see them receiving his call joyfully and creating among all a friendlier and more fraternal climate that would adequately prepare them for the final party.
What’s happened to this invitation? Who announces it? Who hears it? Where can you find new of this party? Satisfied with our own welfare, deaf to all that isn’t about our own interests, we don’t believe we need God. Aren’t we accustomed little by little to live without need of a final hope?
In Matthew’s parable, when those who have lands and businesses reject the invitation, the king says to his servants: «Go to the main crossroads and invite everyone you can find to come to the wedding». The order is unheard of but reflects what Jesus feels. In spite of so much rejection and scorn, there will be a party. God hasn’t changed. We must keep inviting.
But now what’s best is go to the «crossroads» where so many lost people pass, without lands or businesses, those whom no one has ever invited to a party. They can understand better than anyone this invitation. They can remind us of the last necessity we have from God. They can teach us hope.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
