Many are invited but few are chosen. When I reflect on the Gospel reading from today, I imagine a beautiful handwritten envelope among the mail I usually get. It is not just any envelope. This one stands out, and I cannot wait to open it. At last, it is something personal, something addressed to me. It is not addressed to any of the friars who have lived at our house years before me or to my current brothers. I cannot wait. I open it. It is an invitation.
It is not an invitation for a free dinner for a selling opportunity. It is not a letter from my religious superior or the bishop. It is not a notice for a required action on my part, something I must do like to get a driver license, pay my cell phone bill, nothing like that. No, it is a beautiful, personal invitation from our generous and loving God to attend a fabulous feast.
However, this is not an invitation just for me. There is an invitation for you too. We are invited to drop everything, our worldly cares and distractions, and go quickly through our closet for a festive garment and attend the feast.
My dear sisters and brothers, we are invited to consider each day, no matter what our mailbox holds, to be a personal invitation to hear the word of God and keep it in our hearts. You and I are invited to go about our days remembering we are truly at a wonderful celebration, sharing the joy of being a daughter or son of God with every person we meet. It does not matter what our mailboxes hold, God is inviting us to clothe ourselves in faith, hope, and love. This is the garment that will allow us to enter into God’s feast prepared just for us.
Let us ask God to help us to live our lives fully, and we can say like the responsorial psalm, “Here I am Lord. I come to do your will.”