28 th
Sunday 2014
Robert VerEecke, S.J.
Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault: I confess to you my brothers and sisters that I read the wrong Gospel last week. The reason for my mistake is that I am teaching “preaching” to 15 theology students and we were reflecting together on the Gospel of the Banquet. Even though I was preaching about the grapes and the gripes of the Vineyard, I mistakenly jumped ahead to the Banquet for the Gospel.
You may be wondering what qualifies me for teaching “preaching”? I ask myself the same question. The only answer I can give is that week after week for more than 35 years
I have struggled with the question: What do the people of God need to hear? What can I possibly say that will encourage you, inspire you, help you to recommit yourself to the
Joy of the Gospel?
In all honesty, teaching “preaching” is a banquet experience for me. In the class there are nine Jesuits from around the world, one Assumptionist from Vietnam, and five women who are studying for their degrees in theology. I get to “feast” on their words, their interpretation of God’s word, their struggle to communicate the “wonderful works of our
God”. What is so remarkable is that the Holy Spirit inspires each of them differently. No one has the same ideas or interpretations. Each brings his or her faith journey into a dialogue with God and with those who will hear the Word of God spoken in his or her voice and accent.
This afternoon let me “borrow” from two of my students: one man, one woman.
One Jesuit who was ordained this morning to the diaconate focused on two images from the scriptures: The hand of God in the Isaiah passage and the “crowding in” of the guests at the banquet. What a beautiful image Isaiah gives us of the hand of God stretching out to wipe away the tears of every person. Think of yourself when you have gently wiped away the tears of a son or daughter, an intimate friend. To wipe away someone else’s tears is such a beautiful and touching gesture. And here we hear that God will stretch out his hand to wipe away each tear. In a world where there are so many tears flowing because of violent destruction, massacres of whole people, viruses that will not let you touch a family member who is dying, we know we need God’s hand to heal and wipe away our tears. And also to give us the promise of a banquet where all are invited.
His second image was that of everyone being crowded in the banquet hall. So many are there that there is barely space to move. (That’s what our diaconate service was like this morning with 22 young men ordained and so many accepting the invitation to the banquet. You could hardly move! And there were people of different races, languages, all together to celebrate the feast where we sing, “now in this banquet, Christ is our bread.
Here will all hungers be fed. Bread that is broken, wine that is poured, Love is the sign of the Lord.”)

What a wonderful invitation we receive each week to come to this Banquet of Love where we are nourished and fed with the Body and Blood of Christ but also with each other who are the Body of Christ in the world.
Then there was the homily of one of the female students. Her concern was for those who had rejected the offer to come to the banquet. She asked us to think about the “why”.
Why did some in the Gospel parable go back to their farm or go about their business. She suggested that it could have been that the harvest time was “now” and if they missed the opportunity to do the harvesting, they would not be able to feed their family. One can imagine many good reasons for turning down an invitation. This preacher who is a woman, a wife and mother has the rich feast of her human experience to draw from—her wisdom expresses itself in compassion and a profound empathy for the suffering of those who are excluded.
This past week after listening to the five women in the class preach, I had to question why our church invites us to a banquet but only lets us feast on the word interpreted through a man’s experience. The preaching of the nine men in the class is very rich and nourishing but so is that of the women. As the teacher, I get to hear the recipe these women are working from and get to taste the culinary expertise. But you don’t. In our liturgical assembly, you only hear a man’s voice preaching.
Today we had an ordination of 22 men to the diaconate. They are called to be servants of the word and sacrament. From my experience of teaching many of them “preaching” and the Rites (how to baptize, celebrate Mass, etc.), I can assure you that they will be a gift to the church in their ministry. At the same time, I hope and pray that our church can find more ways for the voices of women to be heard in the liturgical assembly. On that day it will be a much richer banquet.
Now in this banquet, Christ is our bread. Here will all hungers be fed. Bread that is broken, wine that is poured, Love is the sign of the Lord.