Ezekiel
36:23-38 – The Renewal of Israel
I
will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness
and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. A new heart will give you, and a
new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh.….Then you shall remember your evil ways,
and your dealings that were not good, and you shall loathe yourselves for your iniquities
and your abominable deeds. It is not for your sake that I will act, says the
Lord God, let that be known to you, Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, o
house of Israel.
Matthew
22:1-14 – The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
Once
more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a king who gave wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to
call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet but they would not come…..Then
he said to his slaves, ”The wedding is ready but those invited were not worthy.
Go therefore in the the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the
wedding banquet.” Those slaves went out into the street and gathered all whom
they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests. However,
when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing
a wedding robe, and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a
wedding robe?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind
him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Father Dan Donovan said that the
message of the prophet varies according to the concrete situation to which it
is addressed. In the first reading of Ezekiel, God declared that we need
renewal of spirituality. Thus, in order to do well, we must become good, which
means, we must be renewed in mind, heart, and soul. Create in us a clean
heart and renew a right spirit within us. God will not despise a broken and
humbled heart. The only way to be transformed within is to give a new heart and
mind. We need to exert efforts to do what is right. Christianity is law or moral
and our actions are justified by law and by faith in Christ. The sum of God’s messages
is LOVE.
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