Let Us Come To The Feast There are about 77 days left until Christmas. I am reminded of this not because the secular world has already started its Christmas selling frenzy; they are still too concerned with ghosts and goblins. Rather, in the last few weeks our Scripture readings at Mass are about the end times. We have been hearing a lot of parables about working in the vineyard. Last week, we heard in the Gospel, about the tenants who failed to produce a harvest for the Lord. And the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” They answered him, “He will put those wretched men to a wretched death.” As you may know, the Church’s liturgical year begins with the First Sunday of Advent . The last Sunday of Ordinary Time is Christ the King Sunday. As we approach that great solemnity of Christ the King, the Church asks us to meditate upon Judgment Day. We say in the Creed every Sunday, “That Christ will come to judge the living and the dead.” We hear in this week’s Gospel, the parable of the wedding feast. We hear of those who, though invited, refuse to come to the feast and we hear how everyone, whomever the servant finds are invited. But though many are invited, few are chosen. The choosing is not what God does from among all those invited; the choosing is what we do in our response to God. This response is a clear choice to do all we need to do in our daily living to witness to the presence of the kingdom of God. We respond each day: when we listen attentively to each other and in our listening strengthen and encourage that person, we are choosing to come to the banquet. When we clothe the poor, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, we are choosing to come to God’s banquet. How we respond to multiple situations and people in our ordinary lives all mark how we choose to respond to the invitation. Let us come to the feast! Image: “The Wedding Feast” by Kazakhstan Artist Nelly Bube.