Homily of the Twenty Eighth Sunday of OT: year A, 2026

In 2009, I went back to VN for the first time. My sisters and I made a trip to North Vietnam, where my parents were born and grew up. My aunt’s family planned a big reception at her house. Almost all families in the parish were invited. There were many people who came to the feast. I thought everything was smooth and good. On the next day after the banquet, we sat and talked about how things went. I learned that my aunt’s family were not worried about food, but they were worried about not many people showing up. In poor areas, they don’t have big refrigerators or freezers to store food. So, there would be a lot of leftovers and wasted food if people did not come. Why did people not come? My cousins explained that in their village, people will boycott your reception if they don’t like you for some reason. Days before the feast, my cousins had to go from door to door to insist they come to the banquet.

Do you see the connection between my story and the parable in the gospel today? The King sent his servants to remind those who were invited to come. But it is sad to learn that those invited ignored their king’s invitation. In other words, they did not respect their King.

There are couple things Jesus wants to teach us through this parable:

Firstly, everyone is invited to the kingdom. Our Baptism is the first invitation to His family. Then the Eucharist is the banquet of the lamb in which God himself feeds us by his Body and Blood. As Christians, our top priority should be coming to His Son’s banquet every week or every day with a grateful heart. We must overcome busy schedules, family business, sport activities, resentments, temptations and sensational feelings to come to the feast. Coming to Mass on Sundays is really a “love responds to Love.”

Secondly, we must pay attention to the guests who came to the wedding feast without wedding garments. What does wedding garment mean? According to Jewish customs, everyone should have a special garment for the wedding feast. Whenever they go to a wedding feast, they have to wear it. So, this man knew that he went to a wedding banquet, but he intentionally did not follow the tradition. He was thrown out. What does it tell you? Jesus wants to tell us that, when we come to the Lord’s banquet, make sure we don’t come in with any kinds of indifference, disrespectful appearances, or mortal sins in our heart. The point is: we should always be ready body and soul for the feast. If we have committed a mortal sin, we should come to confession before we receive the Lord. We should present ourselves with clean and neat clothes. The Church does request modesty in Mass, but unfortunately, nowadays, people do not follow its modesty guidelines anymore. In the Church, we do not only respect God, but we also respect others around us like no shorts or skirts higher than your knees, no exposure of your shoulders and chest, not too much distraction to others. If you don’t have nice clothes, at least, it should be clean.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, all the parables of the last four weekends talk about how God is patience and compassion to us all. God never takes away our freedom of choosing him or rejecting him in our life. The invitations were going out. The messages were spread. It is up to each of us to respond to it every day in our life on earth. Jesus said: “whoever rejects me before the world, I will reject them before my Father. Whoever acknowledges me before the world, I will acknowledge them before my Father.”

Whenever we come to the supper of the Lamb, we acknowledge God’s love for us. Although we are lowly creatures and sinful in his eyes, he still invites us to his banquet. It is an amazing grace. We must appreciate his grace by coming to his feast worthily and faithfully.