Mass Readings Audio
https://bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/2020-10-11-usccb-daily-mass-readings
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 11, 2020
Welcome to the one hundred and thirty-third episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Cycle A) In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wedding Feast and I’d like to consider three things from this parable that have important implications for business and for life: the invitation, the feast, and the wedding garment.
The Invitation
The French phrase RSVP is an initialism of “répondez s’il vous plait”, meaning “please respond” and it is used to require confirmation of an invitation. It does not mean to respond only if you are coming, it does not mean respond only if you are not coming, it does not mean to respond if you’re going to try to come, and it certainly doesn’t mean respond if you feel like responding. “Regrets only”, is a modern variation of RSVP that implies “if you do not reply, it will be assumed that you have accepted.” It is amazing how many people do not know, or do not care enough to follow these simple rules of etiquette.
These days, in business and in our personal lives, technology has provided a simplified approach to facilitate a response when you’re invited to a meeting or an event. All you have to do is click to accept, decline, or reply tentatively. Given this convenience, however, doesn’t mean your invitees will be courteous enough to use it. Not replying is not only a discourtesy, it is unprofessional, a time-waster, productivity crusher, and a pet peeve of mine.
It just goes to show you that technology can only facilitate communication, it cannot take the place of the people involved. People who don’t use their calendars to block unavailability, appear to be available when the meeting planner searches for an open time, even if they are not. People who decline without explaining, leave the meeting planner wondering if they don’t want to attend at all or if the time is not convenient. People who reply tentatively without an explanation or without later confirming either acceptance or decline, complicate matters by leaving the event planner guessing. People whose plans change and fail to decline a previously accepted invitation, leave the attendees waiting for them at the meeting start time. And, when an invitee is a mandatory participant, that is, it will not be a productive meeting without him or her there, these behaviors create a significant drain on the productivity of all involved.
There are often special circumstances that prevent us from easily clicking a response to an invitation, but these situations represent only a small fraction of the total times we are asked to RSVP. In these cases, pick up the phone and call the person who has invited you, explain the circumstances, and together decide what the best next steps are. Otherwise, make a decision, and as Jesus said, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No’.” (Mt 5:37 and James 5:12) Make a decision—yes or no—and, let that yes or no be your commitment.
Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no’. ~ Mt. 5:37The Most Important Invitation
In the Parable of the Wedding Feast, Jesus describes an enormously important invitation, one from the king, who is God our Father. Nothing in our lives compares to this invitation. God wants to feed his people, and all are invited.
When God invites you, you don’t say “no I can’t make it.” Nothing matters more than this invitation and how you respond. In the parable, the king “dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, … 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.” (Mt 22:3-6) We too refuse God’s invitation to some degree and from time to time.
One of the biggest examples of how we refuse God’s invitation is reflected in Mass attendance. According to a 2018 Gallup survey, from 2014 to 2017, only 39% of Catholics reported attending church in the previous seven days. This is down 6 percentage points from an average of 45% from 2005 to 2008 and represents a steep decline from 75% in 1955. While the bad news is that a minority of Catholics are weekly churchgoers, the good news is that a majority are still active and say they attend at least once a month, nearly weekly or weekly.
In 2020, with churches closed to public Mass for over two months because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the continued dispensation of the weekly Mass obligation since they reopened, Mass attendance has dropped significantly from pre-pandemic levels. Even with social distancing requirements in place, there is still room in the inn. According to the Pew Research Forum, of those Catholics who would typically attend the Mass at least monthly, 42 % are watching online, 11% are participating in person, 21% have done both in-person and online, but 26% are not participating at all.
I acknowledge there are legitimate causes for concern for vulnerable populations that keep them away, but there are also those who have grown accustomed to watching the Mass online in their PJs, if they participate at all. As my neighbor said to me last month, if my kids can go back to school, they should probably go back to Mass.
So, what gets in the way? Is work more important? Is it your child’s sporting event? Is it the option to just sleep in? Honestly, I can’t tell you because I was in line before the doors opened the first morning public Mass was celebrated at our parish again. I yearned to receive our Lord sacramentally in the Eucharist and I cried when He was given to me. Why anyone who professes to be Catholic would stay away from the heavenly banquet offered here on earth is beyond me. As Bishop Barron said, “We’ve all heard the invitation to enter into intimacy with the Lord and we find the most pathetic excuses not to respond.”
The Feast
Sure, as Vinny Flynn points out in his book, 7 Secrets of the Eucharist, St. Thomas Aquinas “explains that [a] complete spiritual Communion can take place when we are unable to receive sacramentally, because ‘the effect of a sacrament can be secured if it is received by desire.’” So, we can receive the graces of the Eucharist by participating in the online celebration of the Mass, if we are spiritually disposed to receive these graces.
St. Maximilian Kolbe explained, “At times spiritual Communion brings the same graces as sacramental.” But Vinny Flynn explains that “Kolbe isn’t talking about ‘instead of,’ but ‘in addition to.’ True spiritual Communion is always an anticipation or an extension of sacramental Communion. Ideally, it is both.”
What is missing when we participate in the celebration of the Eucharist online is Christ’s presence in the community of those who believe in him who are gathered for the Eucharistic celebration. As Christians come together in one place as the Eucharistic assembly, at its head is Christ himself. (CCC 1348)
As Bishop Barron said in his homily for this week’s readings, “In the Mass, God comes to meet us, to gather us, to speak his Word and to feed us. At every Mass we gather from different places, backgrounds and points of view, but all in peace. We sing together in the harmonious raising of voices in common praise.” I think we lose this sense of community when we celebrate Mass online.
The Value of a Shared Meal
There is also great value in a shared meal in the workplace. When we eat alone at our desks, we miss out on the benefits of sharing a meal with our co-workers. According to a 2015 study published in the journal Human Performance and featured in the Harvard Business Review, when co-workers share a meal, it helps build camaraderie, fosters deeper work relationships, and boosts productivity.
When co-workers share a meal it helps build camaraderie, fosters deeper work relationships and boosts productivity.An article in U.S. News and World Report points out the benefits can extend beyond workgroups because when we eat with someone from another department – or grab coffee or tea – it is an important way to break down the silos that exist in an office. It can be a way to share different perspectives on companywide goals or brainstorm solutions to challenges with someone from a different background who brings a different perspective.
Families also benefit from eating meals together. Studies show that students who do not regularly eat with their parents are significantly more likely to be truant at school and be overweight when compared to those who do. On the other hand, children who do eat dinner with their parents five or more days a week have less trouble with drugs and alcohol, eat healthier, show better academic performance, and report being closer with their parents than children who eat dinner with their parents less often.
In the middle eastern culture, there is an ancient belief that dining together comes with an oath never to kill the fellow diner. That’s why in Sept. 1993, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, met together with President Bill Clinton at the White House, the two sworn enemies shook hands, but they absolutely refused to dine together. Almost 30 years later, we are still seeking peace in the Middle East.
But let’s not forget, the meal Jesus talks about in his parable is not just any feast, but a wedding feast. As Bishop Barron said, “Jesus in himself is the wedding of heaven of earth and we are invited to join in the joy of this union. You are proposed as the bride to this Groom. This is the proposal of Christianity. A most extraordinary opportunity and to miss this is to miss everything and would be insulting to the king.”
What Should We Wear?
So how do you respond to this invitation and what should you wear? Things have changed culturally in the workplace since I began my professional career. The introduction of “Casual Fridays” has morphed into “Wear Whatever Whenever” in many places of work. Despite different cultural norms in different work environments, and without advocating any one style, I believe in wearing something neat, clean, comfortable, and appropriate, because how you dress reflects an inner disposition.
And this is what Jesus tells us in the parable. He lets us know that saying “yes” to the invitation and coming to the feast is not enough. He said, “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.’” (Mt 22:11-13)
The wedding garment represents a repentance and change of heart and mind that is the condition for entrance into the kingdom. Saying “yes” to the invitation means we must clothe ourselves in a life of good deeds. The Christian who lacks the wedding garment of good deeds will suffer the same fate as those who have rejected Jesus. By our good deeds, by loving our neighbor as ourselves, we experience the joy that God intends for us, the joy of heaven on earth.
Let’s pray for the change of heart and mind for all who are invited to the feast. Matthew Kelly has a beautiful prayer for transformation. Let us pray it together:
Loving Father, here we are. You made us for more than we are right now. We trust that you have an incredible plan for us. Transform us. Transform our lives. Everything is on the table. Take what you want to take and give what you want to give. Transform us into the people you created us to be, the-very-best-versions-of-ourselves, so we can live the lives you have envisioned for us. We hold nothing back. We make ourselves 100% available to you. Lead us, guide us, and show us what it is you are calling us to; then fill us with the courage and grace to do it. Amen.
May God bless you abundantly this week and may you glorify the Lord by your life.
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