28-sunday

28-Sunday-A
One day an old man from Toronto called his son in Calgary and said, “Son, I am so sorry to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing. Fifty years of misery is enough. I can not take it anymore. The son was not happy at all and said, “Dad, please wait and don’t do anything. Then he called his sisters in Halifax and Edmonton and told them the situation and they right away called the dad in Toronto and said, “Please dad, don’t do anything and we are coming home and let us talk. Don’t move out. please wait”. Then the old man hangs up the phone and said to his wife, “honey, our children are coming home for thanksgiving and now what we tell them for Christmas?”
Once a holy man asked,
“Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world: It is not he who prays most or fasts most, it is not he who gives most alms or is most eminent for temperance, chastity or justice; but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God wills.
As we are going to celebrate thanksgiving, let us first of all thank God for everything especially for your families, friends and others.
1.Today’s gospel is a powerful thanksgiving gospel. It shows the compassion and kindness of the eternal king. He loves all without any partiality and that is why He invites every one to his wedding banquet and He wants them all to be happy and celebrate with him and that is why he calls them in a special way.
2.He sent his servants to invite them. He sent His slaves to call them. As they came with loving invitation, people had excuses and did not go to the banquet. One went to his farm and another went to his business and others mistreated the servants and slaves. Since they were angry and mad, they even killed some of the servants.
And even today, we hear often people saying, “I am busy and I don’t have time to go to Eucharistic thanksgiving celebration. I have things to do”.
They all have only one complaint. That is they do not have time. We know where to go, when we do not have something. if we want grocery, we go to grocery and when we do not have enough time, we should go to the person who has time. Yes, God who created time has more time and we should go to Him and ask for time. He will bless us with more time.
Why don’t people have enough time? Not because of their work or because of their family but because of the stress they have thinking about their job and businesses. As we go to God through Christ our Lord, all our stress, anxiety, depression and other physical and emotional challenges will completely be wiped away. We will become new in Christ our Lord.
And here we are today celebrating life because as today’s gospel in the longer version says, “many are called but few are chosen”. We are all chosen by God almighty. Though many received the sacrament of baptism and entered into the Church, they are not here to celebrate the banquet of the Lord the holy Eucharist but we are here. We are chosen in a special way. So let us thank God for choosing us as his own. Let us thank God for sending Christ our Lord to be our Lord and Messiah.
As a chosen people, it is our duty to help others to come to the banquet. few years ago, I came to know a person by Alberta. When Alberta came to church, she shook my hand and said, “Father, I am Alberta. I thought she was joking, so I said if you are Alberta, I am British Colombia. So one day, she called me and said, “Father, my husband and I are going to church, our four children and our grandchildren are not. what should we do? I said, “you are going to help them to be chosen ones. please after Mass as you visit them, talk about the love and kindness of God not about the people who come to church or the priest. as they hear about loving and forgiving god, they will be inspired. preach the gospel when it is necessary use words. Amen.