INSIDE  INVITATION 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my reflection for this 29 Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]  is, “Inside Invitation.”

Today’s readings invite us to a mountain and to a wedding banquet.

We’ve all been invited to weddings.  Have you ever been invited to go backpacking - to go to and climb a mountain?

So a homily on invitation. “You’re invited.” 

RSVP - Please respond. Please accept the invitation.

From time to time we hear the words, “Start climbing!”

From time to time we hear the words, “Go Inside.”

But we rarely take  the time to figure out who it is who is saying that to us and what it means.

“Come to the mountain.” “Start climbing.” “Go Inside!”

It’s an invitation to start climbing - start moving upwards and inwards towards God.

It’s an invitation - to go inside ourselves - to go inside God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Two years ago I went to Gibraltar.  That was an invitation to both go up and go down and to go inside. Gibraltar is both a mountain as well as an inside. It has enormous caves. There are at least two big caves inside. One has lots of chairs and a stage for a symphony orchestra - as well as beautiful stalagmites within.

OTHER PEOPLE’S HOMES

Most weekends the Capital - our local newspaper - brings us inside somebody’s home.

I look at that section of the paper maybe 20 weekends a year.

Is there inside all of us a sneaky  interest about what the inside of another’s home looks like?

We go by a lot of houses in a lifetime - and sometimes we get inside that front door. The psychologist  and the detective inside us wonders about the inside of the other person’s home and heart and mind. What’s going on in there?  What’s it like behind those closed doors?

The first time we’re in someone’s home we try not to be nosy. Yet sometimes we look at the pictures - the light fixtures - the color of the fabric on the drapes and the chairs - the interaction between husband and wife - and kids - aging parents at times. Interesting.

Sometimes we see a painting of someone on the wall  and we ask, “Who’s that?”

Who’s who? Who are the people in our lives? Who are the people in other people’s lives?

TODAY’S READINGS

Today’s readings are all about invitation.

The first reading from  Isaiah is an invitation to go to a mountain - where everything is just right. There are all kinds of tables set up - filled with rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.

It can be the mountain inside our psyche that we all long for - a place of peace - security - massiveness - the rock. 

It’s the place where everyone is at peace with each other. There are no veils - no cloth walls people are hiding behind and from each other. 

It’s the place that has no webs that trap or ensnare us. Death and violence and name calling and prejudice against each other have been removed. 

It’s the mountain Martin Luther King Jr. talked about when he said, “I’ve been to the mountain.” This is the mountain where God is.

As Isaiah puts it, “This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.”

I remember the two times we drove across the United States. Our plan was to stop and camp out as soon as we saw the Rocky Mountains. We would rest and then head for them that day.

Four of us started out in a light blue car from the Bronx - went over the George Washington Bridge - and headed west on Route 80.  

It was to be 32 hours of straight driving.

Finally, we finally saw the mountains in the distance - in the west. 

It was almost dark. We pulled off the road and parked for the night. We went through a barbed wire fence. We set up two tents, talked  and fell asleep pretty fast. 

We woke up the next morning with the sound of cows all around us. We were in pasture. We looked to the west. No mountains. What we thought were mountains the night before were clouds in the distance.

We got moving and finally saw the Rockies.

Then we had a dream two week vacation. 

We were  back packing - 10,000 feet up there.

We came home 10 pounds lighter. Freeze dry food can do that. We came home in much better shape than we started. All day hiking can do that.  We came home alive and filled with new life. We went to the mountain.

We experienced today’s first reading in person.

That was the mountain image. Next comes the banquet image.

Today’s gospel is an invitation to go inside a palace - the kingdom of heaven - for a banquet - a wedding feast for the king’s son.

But at times we put that invitation aside. Or we toss it into the plastic bag garbage - even though we’re told, “Behold I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”

Still we refuse the call, the invitation, and self-destruct our lives.

We stay stupid. We go through the motions and we end up outside the kingdom where we wail and whine and grind our teeth.

That’s what today’s readings are telling us.

We don’t listen to Isaiah or Paul or Matthew.

The second reading from Paul is telling us: whether things are fine or things around us are poor - God still wants to fill us and feed us and bless us.

ST. TERESA OF AVILA

The title of my homily is, “Inside Invitation.”

The two words to hear inside our skulls is, “Go Inside.”

We go inside a church to hear those words - to hear that invitation once again.

Take a look at that statue of St. Teresa of Avila - here on our old high altar - left center.

It’s up there - because our founder of the Redemptorists - St. Alphonsus Liguori - went inside her stuff and found some of God like she did.

St. Teresa of Avila 1515-1582.

She’s holding a book? I wonder if there is writing on it - to tell us what the book is. I know the book outside on the Seelos statue has the name of the book he’s holding. How about this book?  Is it her book El Castillo Interior or Camino de Perfeccione.

Go inside her books. She said, “I love to open, I need to open, a new book.”

Go inside. Start turning the pages.

It took her a while but she finally really went inside God - inside the Trinity.

She said approaching God is like going to the waters.

The first approach is like going to a well.

Then it’s like going to a big water wheel - that moves water - like the back of those big boats on the Mississippi.

Next it’s like irrigating the whole garden by sluices - letting water - water everywhere. 

Then - last - it’s like going outside and standing in the rain. When you get to Rome make sure you go to Bernini's statue of Teresa of Avila - in Ecstasy.  It's in the Cornaro Chapel, in Santa Maria Della Vittoria.

In the meanwhile, if you spot a course being given by someone on The Written Works of St. Teresa of Avila, "go inside" her writings.

She said going deeper and deeper into God is like going into a castle - going from room to room - till we finally get to THE ROOM - the 7^th room - the main room - where God is.

And the whole interior castle is like going into a diamond - with more and more light - bouncing and glancing off the walls into us.

Go inside.

CONCLUSION

The theme I’m pushing today is the theme in today’s readings.

We’re invited.

Come to the mountain.

Come to the banquet.

Come to God - feel our hunger for God and let God fill us.