The Marriage Feast of the King's Son

This is next in the series of articles designed to be sent to college students by parents and grandparents to keep loved ones in our Catholic faith.  This article is about the Mass.

You will receive several invitations for the weekend- ball game, fraternity party, or maybe even a drinking spree to unwind from academics. Yet each weekend there is an invitation sent to each one that is far more prestigious than any of the aforementioned invitations.

It is a banquet served with the finest bread and wine - food and drink for eternal life.  It is given by THE King as a wedding banquet for His Son.  The banquet unites Jesus, the Son, with the wedding guests of the earth, who are called to be participants of the kingdom of God.

Typically, many of your friends will reject the invitation, the summons to participate in the joyous feast we call Mass.  They will respond, ”I have better things to do- to sleep in, to recover from the night before, to study, etc.”  You know all the excuses!

Everything you do is what you make of it. A boring party?  You make it enjoyable by changing the dynamics.

1. You understand the true meaning of the readings.  In the reading for Sunday (Matt 22:1-14), the parable of the wedding feast the king gave for his son, one of the guests did not wear a wedding garment.  The wedding garment is actually provided by the host.  It is unbelievably sandy and dusty in Israel; clothes and sandals are dirtied.  The host’s servants wash the guest’s feet and sandals.  He provides a clean, fresh cloak for the guests as they eat, drink, converse around the banquet table.  This is the first part of the Mass, the greatest banquet feast.  If you are soiled, Confession is the clean garment available to receive the body and blood of Jesus, the Son of God. God offers you the clean garment of forgiveness, a present for us unworthy guests, who come in from the dirtied world.
2. The food and drink at this finest feast is truly the body and blood of Jesus whose body was mangled and smashed like the wheat to make the bread.  The red wine is the blood which poured forth from His side as the soldier lanced his body.
3. No movie or T.V. program could be more compelling.  It begs one to ask why.  Why did Jesus freely choose to do this for us?  The answer is simple - He loved us and wants us to be with Him.
4. We know the result of the marriage feast - Union.  Union with Jesus encompasses all that we are-body, soul, mind, and will.  A spiritual union with fruitful results.  A taste of the hereafter; a partaking of the kingdom of THE King, the kingdom of God.  One can hardly wait for the feast to begin.