St. Philip Catholic Church: Good morning, everybody. Many are are invited, but few are chosen. How many of y'all here this morning by the show of hands believes that God really wants what you want? He wants your freedom and he wants your happiness. How many y'all believe that? Most of you. Not everybody. Okay. Just kidding. The rest of you are just shy. God wants what you want. How does he know what you want? Because he created you in his image and likeness. He knows what's in your heart because he put it there. Every human being on this planet that will ever live desires freedom and happiness. Purpose. Throw another one in there. But it's only in God that we find that. Because there's two kingdoms we deal with the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. Those are the two kingdoms that we deal with. And this world, the prince of this world, will try to convince you that you can find those things outside of God. I've lived long enough, like many of you have, to figure that out. The prodigal son figured it out. He tried it he tried that experiment without God, the Father, and he fell on his face. Many are invited, but few are chosen. This parable of the wedding feast, and by the way, the wedding feast is a symbol of the kingdom of heaven. So The king invites the wedding guests to this feast of his son, this wedding feast. He's speaking about his son. Jesus often speaks of himself at the bridegroom, and we're his bride. At every mass we come because the Father has summoned you here. You're here this morning because God the Father called you here. No, Father Mark, I'm here because my parents made me be here. But the rest of you may be you came because you love the Lord and you're here because he's called you to this wedding feast of the Lamb. We say that at the communion at the communion, right, we say, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb. In other words, to the wedding feast of the Lamb. The bridegroom gives his body to the bride, and he asks us to give our bodies to him. That's what married people do, right? Please say yes. God, I hope you do. Maybe not anymore. I don't know. But so Jesus in this parable, he's addressing three different groups of people, three responses to God's invitation to the wedding feast. And with this invitation from God the Father to come and share in his kingdom. See, God the Father loves every one of you so much beyond our imagination. He loves you and he wants you to share. In his divine life, his supernatural life, his joy, his love. He wants to just shower you with everything that he has in himself. If we could just believe that and trust that he really does want to give you everything. But sometimes we go about the wrong way to receive that. So what are these three groups? So the first group is the busy group. He invites them and they say, Well, they they went off to their farms and businesses because they were too busy. How many of y'all ever said, I'm too busy to pray? Don't raise your hand to that, because I might get mad. I'm too busy to go to mass. When I every every assignment I've had, I've had a school, and I hear the confessions of these Catholic school children, and most of them, a large percentage of them, don't go to church. Their families don't go. And I always say, Why aren't you going to mass? And what is their response? I'm too. We're too busy. Well, what are you busy with? And guess what it is? Everybody knows the answer. Thank you. See? Sports. It's our new religion. I love sports. My team lost yesterday to the volunteers. Sorry, that's a that's another homily. I'm glad y'all won because we're terrible. Anyway, so is there anything wrong with sports? No. It just we don't want it to become a god. And so that first group of people are those. Who treat that invitation with indifference? This is where most Christians or Catholics are today. Not that they're bad people. Most Catholics don't go to church. Even kids that were in Catholic schools where I was, most of them didn't go to church on a regular basis. The sin of indifference. And this parable also addresses the consequences of indifference that we will be left out. See, I don't think a lot of our families I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and I said, and he's not Catholic, I said, I wonder if people are thinking about what happens to them when they die. Have you ever thought to yourself, if I died today, where would I go? Have you ever thought about that? I hope you have thought about that at least once. If I died today, where would I go? Now some Catholics believe in a heresy called universalism. It's a heresy. And universalism says we're all going to heaven. Eat, drink, and be merry. Let's party. We're all going to heaven. That's not even teaching of the faith. It's not the teaching of Jesus. First group, the indifferent group, they're busy. They're too busy. Not that they're bad people, but they've allowed distractions and busyness to take them away from the faith. This is the work of the devil. Satan does not want any of you, he doesn't want any family. To give their lives to God because he wants to destroy you. Those are temptations to think we don't need God, we don't need the sacraments. I'll just pray at home. I hear that one a lot. Father Mark, we're good people. Have you ever heard that one? We're good people. We pray. We give to charities. Okay, that's great. I know atheists that do that, but that won't get me into the kingdom. The second group. Is those who respond to God's call with hostility. We see this in our society today. People who respond to the call to repentance and to give their life to Jesus Christ. We see people become hostile. Why do they become hostile? Because they see the invitation to the kingdom as a threat to their freedom and happiness. Some people see Christianity as a threat. Their happiness. If I really give my life to Jesus Christ, he's going to take away all my toys. Yeah, he's going to take away my toys, and I won't be able to have fun anymore out there. That's a lie from the devil, too. He's just whispering that in your head. you don't want to give your life to the faith, to the Christian faith. It's just a bunch of hypocritical people. Anyway, you might as well just do what you want to do. You'll find happiness out here. So, second group. Those who are hostile to the Christian faith because they don't know the love of the Father. They don't know that He's so in love with them and He really does want their happiness and their freedom. He really does with His whole being. This is why He created us. And it this is why His Son died for us. You're worth dying for, even though we we're not worthy. The third group is the group that goes to church. Now we get to you. Get to pick on you a little bit. So these are the this this gentleman that's not in the wedding garment. You go, what the heck does that mean? He's not in the wedding garment. So biblical scholars, all the they'll tell you different things, but they basically agree on the wedding garment is a person who comes to church, but they're living another life out there. Anybody ever I can relate to that one. Long before I got called the priesthood, I was going to church every Sunday. That's pretty much it. The rest of the week we won't go into it because we have kids here. Let's just say I came to Mass a lot of times on the weekend with a major headache. How's that sound? And I went up to communion. They said, the body Christ. Amen. You know. Not thinking anything about what I just did the night before. So, in other words, that that individual, that group of people, he's talking about those who come to the wedding feast, but are not. Properly disposed. How do we become properly disposed? By going to regular confession. When I read this gospel, I think of all the p Catholics who come to Mass on Christmas and Easter that have been away and they're coming up to communion. I'm like, no, no, don't do it. You know? Because they're not properly disposed. Now, if this is just a piece of bread and some wine, come on up. Everybody in the world just come on in. So This person, this group of people, addresses another, I think, heresy in our church today, where we say all people, Catholics should have open communion to all people, because if Jesus were giving his body and blood and soul and divinity at every mass, which he is, if he's really doing that, he would welcome all of us. How many of y'all ever heard that one? Raise your hand. I know you're out there. If Jesus were up there, he would love me right where I am. He does love you right where you where you are, but he loves you too much to keep you there. So, in other words, to be properly disposed, if I really believed in the true presence in the Eucharist, I want to make sure that my soul is in a state of grace. And I'm good. Not that I'm perfect, but I've gone to confession and I'm ready to receive him. So that's the dirt group. Which group do you find yourself in? Hopefully that second one, but hostility, right? But we see that. Maybe some of y'all even see that in your families where your kids are just like rebellious and hostile to the Catholic faith. Right? But I think the main one that I see as a priest, and I talk to priest friends of mine, and they're I I'm concerned for our church, for most of our church, because I don't think families are realizing that their indifference to God and to the sacraments is an offense to him. It breaks his heart. I used to tell the kids in school, I said, don't think of sin as just breaking the commandments. It is, but think of it like this: you're breaking his heart. The Father has this great feast. He's inviting the whole world. Come and give yourself to me through my son Jesus. I've given you the Eucharist. I give you this out of comment and we're telling him we're too busy. Think about that for a minute. This loving God, this Father who's given us his son on the cross, and we're telling him we're too busy. But I guarantee you, how many of us make time to go to the Titans game today? Or I got it tea time. There's nothing wrong with those things. But I think we've gotten things out of order. I know we have, I don't think. So I think we all kind of need to examine ourselves, including myself. That third group, I mean, I have to go to Mass every day. I should say I get to go to Mass every day. I love going to Mass because I love him. And I think that's where what's missing for a lot of people is they haven't fallen in love with him. When you're in love with him, you want to come, even when you're tired. So But that third group, the the the man without the wedding garment, I think that would apply to a lot of us because it has to do with is my soul in a proper disposition before God? Where do I in other words, where do I need to repent? Am I really living my faith? Or am I just a church goer on Sundays or occasionally? So that that fits that third type of group of people. Am I an intentional disciple? Am I committed to following him the best I can? Or am I just simply a churchgoer and the rest of my week doesn't look very Christian? So that's something we can all kind of think about a little bit. It's not well I would say this: don't be discouraged. Don't look down on yourself. Don't give up on your family members who maybe aren't going to the church, but I think we just need to keep praying for our family members and pray that they come to know Jesus. Not just about him, but they come to fall in love with him. Holy Spirit, one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin. This is a great prayer. Holy Spirit, please start starting with me. Holy Spirit, convict me of my sin. Show me where I'm living in sin and where I need to repent. And please, Holy Spirit, move upon my family who have fallen away from the faith. Enlighten their conscience and let them see, Lord, that they're missing out. On so much you want to give to them. Rather than judging people, let's we don't, that's not our place. Let's pray for each other and for ourselves. Because that's what the Father would want us to do. Don't give up. He's not going to give up on his church. But he's looking to us to work on ourselves first and continue to pray for each other so that we can all come to know the joy that we can taste of his kingdom on earth now. He wants us to taste of his kingdom now. and the joy that comes from knowing him.