St. Bernard, abbot & doctor 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Ezekiel 36:23-28

I will make known the holiness of my great Name,

Profaned among the nations because of you, and they will know that I am Yahweh when I show them my holiness among you.  For I will gather you from all the nations and bring you back to your own land.

Then I shall pour pure water over you and you shall be made clean – cleansed from the defilement of all your idols. I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I shall remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

 I shall put my spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees and keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you shall be my people and I will be your God.

 

Ps 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Matthew 22:1-14

 Jesus continued speaking to them in parables: “This story throws light on the kingdom of heaven. A king gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call the invited guests to the banquet, but the guests refused to come.

Again he sent other servants ordering them to say to the invited guests: ‘I have prepared a banquet, slaughtered my fattened calves and other animals, and now everything is ready; come then, to the wedding feast.’ 

But they paid no attention and went away, some to their fields, and others to their work. While the rest seized the ser­vants of the king, insulted them and killed them.  The king became angry.

He sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants: ‘The wedding banquet is prepared, but the invited guests were not worthy. Go, then, to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’

The servants went out at once into the streets and gathered everyone they found, good and bad alike, so that the hall was filled with guests. The king came in to see those who were at table, and he noticed a man not wearing the festal garment.

So he said to him: ‘Friend, how did you get in without the wedding garment?’ But the man remained silent. So the king said to his servants: ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the dark where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.’  Know that many are called, but few are chosen.”

 

Gospel Reflection：

Acouple decided to bring to their home an orphaned eight-year old girl. They clothed her, taught her table manners, enrolled her to school, and treated her the same as their two biological daughters.

The girl, however, found it hard to get into her new situation. She preferred things as they were in the orphanage. The adoptive mother gently told her, “My girl, we brought you home and I wish we can bring the whole orphanage with you here.

But we cannot. Be our daughter, please.” When God reclaims us as part of His family, He wants us to become His child, no longer a child of the world. It is not enough that we are called and invited, we work to be fit to be chosen.

It is not also about passing a screening but taking advantage of the call to reform ourselves to achieve fitness in God’s home.