October 11, 2026
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mt 22:1–14

Today is the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The passage from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew presents Jesus once again telling a parable of a wedding feast to the chief priests and the elders of the people. Let us try to understand it.

First, Matthew tells us: Jesus spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables once more, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding feast for his son. He sent his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused.” (cf. Mt 22:1–3)

This recalls the Eucharist in which we are now participating. We know that the Eucharist celebrates the mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, out of love for us, willingly offered Himself as a sacrifice on the cross, enduring the suffering of the crucifixion. By His sacred death on the cross, He destroyed death, and by His glorious Resurrection, He utterly conquered it. It is also a memorial of the sufferings our Lord Jesus endured for love of us. In the Eucharist, we are invited to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who invites us is none other than the merciful Father, who wills that all of us come to the banquet of His Son. Yet among us, there are always those who choose to refuse. They regard their present life and all they currently possess as more important than that of eternal life. Therefore, they refuse to come to the feast. This, precisely, is the influence of secularism on the Church.

In the parable Jesus tells us today, we also see a scene that seems rather discordant to us—that of the man who was not wearing a wedding garment. Because he had no wedding garment, the master of the feast ordered his servants to bind the man hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. (cf. Mt 22:8–14) Who is this man without a wedding garment? He is one who seeks only the outward ritual, who has not made a good Confession, who has not prepared his heart and mind, who has not been reconciled with those he has wronged. He is the man without a wedding garment, because he has not truly received the word of God, has not truly clothed himself in Jesus Christ. That man’s end is tragic.

Then, how can we dress in a fitting wedding garment? The way is simple: it requires a complete conversion, not merely an external change, but a transformation of the heart through hearing the word of God. It means bringing our hearts into harmony with the heart of Jesus Christ. Only in this way can we live out the spirit of God’s word, and only then can our actions truly conform to the teachings of Jesus.

May your grace, O Lord, we pray,
at all times go before us and follow after
and make us always determined
to carry out good works.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever

©Totus Tuus 2026
Cum Approbatione Ecclesiastica