From the Highways and Byways

In the Gospel today, we are told that the landowner throws a party for his son. The invited guests didn’t come as expected. So the landowner sends out his servants to “Go out, into the highways and byways and invite to the feast whomever you find. The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.”

God invites us all to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven and His Kingdom on earth. We are welcome whatever our past, poor decisions, or present situation. We are invited, the imperfect and the floundering. We are invited as we are for who we are. God wants us all to fill the wedding feast of Heaven.

We have a task as the invited. My Mom taught me that you never go to a friend’s house with “one arm as long as the other.” By that, of course, she meant to bring a gift. Be carrying something, however simple, to show your gratitude. God asks the same of us when we come to His wedding feast. But what do we bring when God is the host?

Do you realize that every priest, deacon, preacher, or spiritual writer has only one homily, only one truth they have been given by God to share? Their homily is the Word that God has planted in their heart. They spend a lifetime preaching homilies, saying the same thing in a million different ways. The preached Word becomes more precise and authentic as a preacher matures in faith and oneness with God. In some ways, it becomes simpler. It becomes a pure note in the symphony of God.

The same is true for us. Each of us has been given one homily to preach with our lives. We have been given one Word that is only ours and is unique in all the world. Our task is to be faithful to the journey and live our Word even when unsure and awkward. God doesn’t want or need perfect words. As we mature in our relationship with God, God’s Word planted in us becomes simpler, more precise, and purer. It takes a lifetime to be able to preach our Word.

One Word is not more important than another in God’s Kingdom. The Word planted in the hearts of Popes and Saints is not more important in God’s Kingdom than yours or mine. Saints give us inspiration. But only we can live the Word given to us. We come to God’s feast from the highways and byways. It takes all of us living God’s Word to create the fullness of the Kingdom of God. Said another way, it takes all of us singing the one note that is ours alone to intone the symphony of God that will echo for all eternity.

No matter what highway or byway we are from, we are called to make our way to the wedding feast. We bring the Word initially given to us as a gift to return to God, our host. A Word that we have made perfect in the wear and tear of living. It is a Word we have polished with the tears of sadness and grief and made dazzling by the joys that warmed our lives. 

Our Words, spoken together and lived together, become the Word of God. Every Word is needed. It is only together that we can become one in the face and the heart of God. It is only together that we can be one in the Kingdom of God. 

Perhaps this week is a good time to fertilize the Word, the one Word God has planted in our souls. It is also time to encourage the Word we see in others. We are called to inspire one another. We practice and perfect our words together as one human family. 

We will sing our Word as a pure and beautiful note in the Kingdom of God when it is time. Together, we will create an awe-filled symphony in the Kingdom of Love.

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen