By Father Rich Tomkosky
Jesus is challenging us to put His Kingdom as a first priority. What is the kingdom or wedding feast that He is talking about? The kingdom is our life now in the Church and living our Catholic faith on earth, which ultimately leads to the Heavenly Kingdom in eternity.
Is loving God and seeking His Kingdom our number #1 priority? As I noted last week, we humans are tempted to and sometimes – if we are being honest – do put work or studies, our family and other relationships, hobbies, activities, and sports ahead of God on our list of priorities. Over the years, but not as much here in Bedford, I’ve seen parishioners out and about doing many things when they weren’t at Sunday/Holy Day Mass. What?! This is exactly what is going on in the parable when those invited by the King, instead went off to their business or to their farm or who knows what (see Our Lady’s apparition in LaSalette, France in 1846)! We must put God and living our faith first in our life! Truly we must give God our best, not the scraps of our life!
Growing in the spiritual life or our life of prayer and union with God is the key to making Him first. A question to ask ourselves to gauge whether we are truly making progress and maturing spiritually, as with humility/patience is: do I spend as much time in prayer when things are going good in my life as when things are bad? If we spend more time praying when things are going bad, but as soon as the situation is resolved, go back to putting God down on the list, it is something we need to change. Or vice versa: some of us pray when things are going well and get mad at God when things are going bad. We are only truly being faithful to Him if we love God equally in good times and bad times, in season and out of season.
In close relation to this, we need to be careful that we don’t seek spiritual consolations for their own sake. This is a danger, for when we have the good spiritual feeling of God’s presence and sweetness we like to pray, but when those feelings are not there, we tend not to. A similar analogy is when we are trying to train a child in virtue, we try to incentivize them, e.g., if you clean your room, we will go to the store to buy something nice, or if you guys get along today, I will take you for an ice cream. God, similarly, when we begin in the spiritual life, will give us a sweet feeling (consolation) in our soul, often times, as an incentive to continue praying and growing in spiritual virtue, but at some point He will take those consolations away for a time, long or short, in order to mature and purify us: to see if we will love Him for His own sake rather than for simply the consolation that comes from loving Him (this is the reality of spiritual dryness as the saints call it). So, are we relying too much on our feelings in the spiritual life and relying too much on consolations in determining how much we do pray? We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to love God in our will, our choices and priorities in life, and not simply in our fickle human feelings.
A final lesson to draw from this parable concerns that mysterious passage at the end of the parable when the guy gets thrown out for not wearing a wedding garment. What is that all about? The man without the wedding garment is someone who is not willing to change; he just pretends he is faithful and part of the King’s household. This ties into the reality that it is not enough to come to the banquet, i.e., Sunday/Holy Day Mass, but we must then live out the Mass in our daily life and also try to come to daily Mass as much as we can. We cannot be “an angel on Sunday and a devil the rest of the week” as the old saying goes. We must strive with God’s grace to live out our entire Catholic faith in integrity throughout the week. No deliberate picking – and – choosing among the teachings of Jesus and His Catholic Church but embracing the whole package.
I recommend one practical spiritual aid to help with that process. I recommend that everyone, especially those with little children and teenagers, if you do not already do so, to pray a set of the mysteries of the Rosary on a daily basis. It will be the best 15-20 minutes of each day, apart from if you are able to come to daily Mass. Please make that sacrifice and Our Lady will lead you into ever closer union with the Trinity. She teaches us how to love God and neighbor more deeply. If you are not in the habit of praying the Rosary, perhaps start with one decade a day for a week, and by the end of five weeks you will be praying a full set of the mysteries. It will change your life! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us pray well. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
Overview
Putting God’s Kingdom First and Not Being Kicked Out of the Divine Wedding Banquet
By Father Rich Tomkosky
Jesus is challenging us to put His Kingdom as a first priority. What is the kingdom or wedding feast that He is talking about? The kingdom is our life now in the Church and living our Catholic faith on earth, which ultimately leads to the Heavenly Kingdom in eternity.
Is loving God and seeking His Kingdom our number #1 priority? As I noted last week, we humans are tempted to and sometimes – if we are being honest – do put work or studies, our family and other relationships, hobbies, activities, and sports ahead of God on our list of priorities. Over the years, but not as much here in Bedford, I’ve seen parishioners out and about doing many things when they weren’t at Sunday/Holy Day Mass. What?! This is exactly what is going on in the parable when those invited by the King, instead went off to their business or to their farm or who knows what (see Our Lady’s apparition in LaSalette, France in 1846)! We must put God and living our faith first in our life! Truly we must give God our best, not the scraps of our life!
Growing in the spiritual life or our life of prayer and union with God is the key to making Him first. A question to ask ourselves to gauge whether we are truly making progress and maturing spiritually, as with humility/patience is: do I spend as much time in prayer when things are going good in my life as when things are bad? If we spend more time praying when things are going bad, but as soon as the situation is resolved, go back to putting God down on the list, it is something we need to change. Or vice versa: some of us pray when things are going well and get mad at God when things are going bad. We are only truly being faithful to Him if we love God equally in good times and bad times, in season and out of season.
In close relation to this, we need to be careful that we don’t seek spiritual consolations for their own sake. This is a danger, for when we have the good spiritual feeling of God’s presence and sweetness we like to pray, but when those feelings are not there, we tend not to. A similar analogy is when we are trying to train a child in virtue, we try to incentivize them, e.g., if you clean your room, we will go to the store to buy something nice, or if you guys get along today, I will take you for an ice cream. God, similarly, when we begin in the spiritual life, will give us a sweet feeling (consolation) in our soul, often times, as an incentive to continue praying and growing in spiritual virtue, but at some point He will take those consolations away for a time, long or short, in order to mature and purify us: to see if we will love Him for His own sake rather than for simply the consolation that comes from loving Him (this is the reality of spiritual dryness as the saints call it). So, are we relying too much on our feelings in the spiritual life and relying too much on consolations in determining how much we do pray? We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to love God in our will, our choices and priorities in life, and not simply in our fickle human feelings.
A final lesson to draw from this parable concerns that mysterious passage at the end of the parable when the guy gets thrown out for not wearing a wedding garment. What is that all about? The man without the wedding garment is someone who is not willing to change; he just pretends he is faithful and part of the King’s household. This ties into the reality that it is not enough to come to the banquet, i.e., Sunday/Holy Day Mass, but we must then live out the Mass in our daily life and also try to come to daily Mass as much as we can. We cannot be “an angel on Sunday and a devil the rest of the week” as the old saying goes. We must strive with God’s grace to live out our entire Catholic faith in integrity throughout the week. No deliberate picking – and – choosing among the teachings of Jesus and His Catholic Church but embracing the whole package.
I recommend one practical spiritual aid to help with that process. I recommend that everyone, especially those with little children and teenagers, if you do not already do so, to pray a set of the mysteries of the Rosary on a daily basis. It will be the best 15-20 minutes of each day, apart from if you are able to come to daily Mass. Please make that sacrifice and Our Lady will lead you into ever closer union with the Trinity. She teaches us how to love God and neighbor more deeply. If you are not in the habit of praying the Rosary, perhaps start with one decade a day for a week, and by the end of five weeks you will be praying a full set of the mysteries. It will change your life! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us pray well. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.