2020년 8월 20일 연중 제20주간 목요일
오늘의 복음 : http://info.catholic.or.kr/missa/default.asp
제1독서
에제키엘 예언서 36,23-28
주님께서 이렇게 말씀하신다.
23 “나는 민족들 사이에서 더럽혀진,
곧 너희가 그들 사이에서 더럽힌 내 큰 이름의 거룩함을 드러내겠다.
그들이 보는 앞에서 너희에게 나의 거룩함을 드러내면,
그제야 그들은 내가 주님임을 알게 될 것이다. 주 하느님의 말이다.
24 나는 너희를 민족들에게서 데려오고 모든 나라에서 모아다가,
너희 땅으로 데리고 들어가겠다.
25 그리고 너희에게 정결한 물을 뿌려, 너희를 정결하게 하겠다.
너희의 모든 부정과 모든 우상에게서 너희를 정결하게 하겠다.
26 너희에게 새 마음을 주고 너희 안에 새 영을 넣어 주겠다.
너희 몸에서 돌로 된 마음을 치우고, 살로 된 마음을 넣어 주겠다.
27 나는 또 너희 안에 내 영을 넣어 주어,
너희가 나의 규정들을 따르고 나의 법규들을 준수하여 지키게 하겠다.
28 그리하여 너희는 내가 너희 조상들에게 준 땅에서 살게 될 것이다.
너희는 나의 백성이 되고 나는 너희의 하느님이 될 것이다.”
복음
마태오 22,1-14
그때에 예수님께서는 여러 가지 비유로
수석 사제들과 백성의 원로들에게 1 말씀하셨다.
2 “하늘 나라는 자기 아들의 혼인 잔치를 베푼 어떤 임금에게 비길 수 있다.
3 그는 종들을 보내어 혼인 잔치에 초대받은 이들을 불러오게 하였다.
그러나 그들은 오려고 하지 않았다.
4 그래서 다시 다른 종들을 보내며 이렇게 일렀다.
‘초대받은 이들에게, ′내가 잔칫상을 이미 차렸소.
황소와 살진 짐승을 잡고 모든 준비를 마쳤으니,
어서 혼인 잔치에 오시오.′하고 말하여라.’
5 그러나 그들은 아랑곳하지 않고,
어떤 자는 밭으로 가고 어떤 자는 장사하러 갔다.
6 그리고 나머지 사람들은 종들을 붙잡아 때리고 죽였다.
7 임금은 진노하였다. 그래서 군대를 보내어
그 살인자들을 없애고 그들의 고을을 불살라 버렸다.
8 그러고 나서 종들에게 말하였다.
‘혼인 잔치는 준비되었는데 초대받은 자들은 마땅하지 않구나.
9 그러니 고을 어귀로 가서 아무나 만나는 대로 잔치에 불러오너라.’
10 그래서 그 종들은 거리에 나가
악한 사람 선한 사람 할 것 없이 만나는 대로 데려왔다.
잔칫방은 손님들로 가득 찼다.
11 임금이 손님들을 둘러보려고 들어왔다가,
혼인 예복을 입지 않은 사람 하나를 보고,
12 ‘친구여, 그대는 혼인 예복도 갖추지 않고 어떻게 여기 들어왔나?’ 하고 물으니,
그는 아무 말도 하지 못하였다.
13 그러자 임금이 하인들에게 말하였다.
‘이자의 손과 발을 묶어서 바깥 어둠 속으로 내던져 버려라.
거기에서 울며 이를 갈 것이다.’
14 사실 부르심을 받은 이들은 많지만 선택된 이들은 적다.”
August 20 2020
Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
Daily Mass : http://www.catholictv.com/shows/daily-mass
Reading 1
Thus says the LORD:
I will prove the holiness of my great name,
profaned among the nations,
in whose midst you have profaned it.
Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD,
when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.
For I will take you away from among the nations,
gather you from all the foreign lands,
and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,
taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,
careful to observe my decrees.
You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps. 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19
R. (Ezekiel 36:25) I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
R. I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.
Gospel
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying,
“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.’
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’
Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
―St. Bernard
I thought it was appropriate to open today’s reflection with this quote attributed to St. Bernard since today is his memorial, but also because it really captures the essence of what Jesus was trying to tell us in today’s gospel.
God is calling us to the banquet; we have a place there. The invitation is wide open. The challenge is in how we receive it. Are we all in or is our commitment superficial? God doesn’t want us to come to the table only when it works in our schedules. He wants us seated with him all the time. God is wanting us to act, even when it isn’t convenient and this is the hard part (at least for me). God desires this for us because of the transformative power his love brings to our lives when we are fully committed. Think about the limitations of an athlete who only shows up for games, but doesn’t commit to work outs or good nutrition. Our rewards in this life and the next are just as diminished when we don’t wholeheartedly accept God’s invitation.
Accepting this invite requires more than checking the yes box on the RSVP. A deeper level of commitment is required. Like the invitees in today’s gospel, it isn’t always bad things that distract us, many times it is the routine demands of daily life. We have to work, take care of children, take care of parents, pay bills, clean the house, the list can be endless, never finding time to “pencil in” prayer. We can also find ourselves saying things like, “We will go to church once the kids are older and can behave,” or “I will speak up against that injustice once I finish my project at work.” What Jesus is asking us to do in today’s gospel is to put God on the top of the list. Jesus is imploring us to quit reserving our discipleship to those moments when we have enough time or when it is easy (again as St. Bernard said, “hell is full of good wishes and desires"). We are being called to the table, not to just sit, but to embrace the companionship and love that is found there. Let us pray today that God will help us welcome this most generous invitation to love and serve.
http://www.presentationministries.com/obob/obob.asp
ALL DONE
“ ‘My friend,’ he said, ‘how is it you came in here not properly dressed?’ The man had nothing to say.” —Matthew 22:12
Jesus will sprinkle clean water on us to give us new life in Him and cleanse us from all our impurities (Ez 36:25). He will give us a new heart and a new spirit (Ez 36:26) and will even put His Spirit within us (Ez 36:27). Furthermore, He will give us robes of righteousness (see 2 Cor 5:3) and make us holy as He is holy (1 Pt 1:16).
If we don’t have victory on earth and eternal life in heaven, it will not be Jesus’ fault. Out of love for us, He became man, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and poured out the Spirit. He remains with us in the Eucharist, and even dwells within us in unheard-of intimacy (Jn 6:56; 17:23). What more could He do?
We only need to let it be done to us according to God’s will (Lk 1:38). Jesus has done all the work. Our part is to believe in Him and thereby accept His saving grace. We have no excuse not to come to the heavenly banquet, no excuse for going to hell. Accept Jesus’ finished work. Accept Jesus as Savior, Lord, and God.
Prayer: Jesus, I choose to live for You and not for myself, to do Your will and not mine.
Promise: “You shall be My people, and I will be your God.” —Ez 36:28
Praise: St. Bernard is a titan of the Church. During his 37 years as abbot of the Clairvaux monastery, he spearheaded the foundation of 136 other monasteries throughout Europe!
http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/
What can a royal wedding party tell us about God's kingdom? One of the most beautiful images used in the Scriptures to depict what heaven is like is the wedding celebration and royal feast given by the King for his newly-wed son and bride. Whatever grand feast we can imagine on earth, heaven is the feast of all feasts because the Lord of heaven and earth invites us to the most important banquet of all - not simply as bystanders or guests - but as members of Christ's own body, his bride the church! The last book in the Bible ends with an invitation to the wedding feast of the Lamb - the Lord Jesus who offered his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins and who now reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! (Revelations 22:17). The Lord Jesus invites us to be united with himself in his heavenly kingdom of peace and righteousness.
Whose interests come first - God or mine?
Why does Jesus' parable of the marriage feast seem to focus on an angry king who ends up punishing those who refused his invitation and who mistreated his servants? Jesus' parable contains two stories. The first has to do with the original guests invited to the marriage feast. The king had sent out invitations well in advance to his subjects, so they would have plenty of time to prepare for coming to the feast. How insulting for the invited guests to then refuse when the time for celebrating came! They made light of the King's request because they put their own interests above his. They not only insulted the King but the heir to the throne as well. The king's anger is justified because they openly refused to give the king the honor he was due. Jesus directed this warning to the Jews of his day, both to convey how much God wanted them to share in the joy of his kingdom, but also to give a warning about the consequences of refusing his Son, their Messiah and Savior.
An invitation we cannot refuse!
The second part of the story focuses on those who had no claim on the king and who would never have considered getting such an invitation. The "good and the bad" along the highways certainly referred to the Gentiles (non-Jews) and to sinners. This is certainly an invitation of grace - undeserved, unmerited favor and kindness! But this invitation also contains a warning for those who refuse it or who approach the wedding feast unworthily. God's grace is a free gift, but it is also an awesome responsibility.
Cheap grace or costly grace?
Dieterich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in Germany who died for his faith under Hitler's Nazi rule, contrasted "cheap grace" and "costly grace".
"Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves... the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance... grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate... Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."
God invites each of us as his friends to his heavenly banquet that we may celebrate with him and share in his joy. Are you ready to feast at the Lord's banquet table?
Lord Jesus, may I always know the joy of living in your presence and grow in the hope of seeing you face to face in your everlasting kingdom.
Psalm 40:1,4,6-9
4 Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods!
6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire; but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7 Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the roll of the book it is written of me;
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
Daily Quote from the Early Church Fathers: A guest with no wedding garment, by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)
"But since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful, my friends, lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart's clothing. We must consider what comes next with great fear in our hearts. But the king came in to look at the guests and saw there a person not clothed in a wedding garment. What do we think is meant by the wedding garment, dearly beloved? For if we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself. Only God's love brought it about that his only begotten Son united the hearts of his chosen to himself. John says that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for us' (John 3:16)." (excerpt from FORTY GOSPEL HOMILIES 38.9)
More Homilies
August 23 2018 Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
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