Dear Parish Family,

In our Gospel this weekend we get this interesting parable about the kingdom of heaven being like a king who invited many to the wedding feast of his son, but the invitees declined the invitation.  Perhaps the king could use better servants.  They are, after all, the ones charged with inviting the guests.  I wonder exactly why they were so unsuccessful?  Who in their right mind would refuse a great feast with fattened cattle?  Maybe the servants should take a 101 class in marketing because they have clearly fumbled the pitch.  Maybe if they were able to make some phone calls around to their friends, they would have been more successful.  Maybe if they had one of those beautiful AI posters, the guests would have shown up.

God comes to us at some pretty inconvenient times.  There are often places where I ask God time and time again to show up, and it seems like He is nowhere to be found.  Yet, you best believe He is going to ask something more of me the second that I come preoccupied with something else.  He always seems to ask something of us in our families and neighbors in the least convenient time.  And maybe that’s what makes you and me the guests in this parable.  Various projects in our lives, as good as they may be, can often cloud our vision and distract us from the wedding feast that we are all called to.  It’s not that the people and promptings in our life are unconvincing; it’s that we care a whole lot about our farms and our businesses in whatever fashion they look like in our lives.  May we ask the Lord this week to illuminate the things that are keeping us from the wedding feast.  What are the things, as good as they are, that we are prioritizing over God?  May we grow more detached from those things so that we can truly celebrate and enter into the eternal wedding feast.

Festively,

Fr. Sean