All we can do is to invite

In my almost 3 months of being a Deacon, and almost everyday of homily, and everyday reflection of the Word of God I realized that the Word of God, the Good News, or the Gospel are invitations of God. Much as we’d want to enforce the values they convey, we cannot in good conscience and in actuality force the people of God to live by the message of the Gospel.

This leads to the lessening the importance of the Gospel as mere suggestions for Spiritual journey and not as the ultimate gage for final judgment. When we proclaim the Word of God to people, we could only present it as an invitation or suggestion. And invitations or suggestions are prone to disregard and excuses and alibis like what the parable today presents to us. Suggestions lang naman pala e. Invitation lang naman pala e. We’re not forced to go or to do it. Only God can enforce his Gospel.

People today have less interest on what is proclaimed. I have several instances when I tried preaching using the Word of God, and focused my homily on the messages of the Scriptures and tried my very best to explain and reflect upon the given verse but I can see from where I stand on the pulpit that people’s attention are in the air. But when I preach using popular tools and human experience, or popular issues people would love to listen. But in such a scenario, there is the risk to discredit the message of the Word of God and the risk to focus on attention techniques and imageries.

In the Gospel, we heard many excuses, and in these excuses are missed opportunities to belong to the banquet. There are many factors that obscure the invitation of God to us:

"But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come."

But our first reading offers a new way of proclamation, a new way of inviting others, one which does not ask to suggest or invite. We call this proclamation by witnessing. When we love one another, when we are cheerful, dedicated, respectful of one another, humble, and sympathetic and not pretending to know everything because we religious know very little about life.

If people see that the banquet of the Lord is attractive enough not by words but by the kind of love and cherishing of one another, respect and encouragement to one another, people outside the banquet might just be attracted, moved, and not-needing-invitation, come to the banquet. They might just come not for words but for the warmth, they might come not to listen but to live and feel belongingness.