Homily: November 3, Tuesday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time (Invitation)

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“I ask you, consider me excused.”

In today’s busy world, we use the word excuse so many times. We cannot attend every event, family gathering, dinner, or celebration to which we are invited. So we often excuse ourselves, giving one reason or another.

In today’s Gospel, the invited guests did the same thing. One had purchased land, another had bought oxen, and another had just married. They all had their reasons. None of these things was bad in itself, but they gave them priority over the invitation to the banquet.

God our Father also keeps inviting us to a banquet, the heavenly banquet. And whether we will be part of that banquet depends on our response to His invitation. God does not invite us just once. He keeps inviting us throughout our lives.

God created us with a soul that constantly longs for Him, a soul that will find its ultimate fulfillment only when it is united with Him.

And throughout our lives, God gives us opportunities to respond to His invitation.

He invites parents to bring their children for Baptism. He invites us to receive the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation. Every time we say yes to these invitations, we are preparing ourselves for the heavenly banquet.

Sometimes His invitation comes in very simple ways. It may be an inner prompting to go to confession, to forgive someone, to reconcile with a person we have hurt, or to return to prayer after being away from God for a long time.

These are not just ordinary thoughts. They can be God's gentle invitations, calling us closer to Him.

Our final yes to God is prepared by the many little yeses we say to Him throughout our lives.

So today, let us ask ourselves: How often do we excuse ourselves when God invites us? Are we too busy with other things to respond to Him?

May we learn to recognize His invitations and respond generously, so that when the final invitation comes, we may be ready to enter the heavenly banquet and rejoice with Him forever. Amen.


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