We
are a Family
Matthew
22:1-14
One Sunday when our daughter Megan was quite young and still sitting up to the table in her highchair, she was trying to figure relationships out. She said to me "You're Dad". She then turned to her mom and said, "You're Mom". She pointed to herself "I'm Megan". Then she added in great flare "and we are a family". We realized how important it was to gather around the table and share a meal together, and no matter how much the week has been disjointed, we have always taken great effort to all be together on Sundays. It is not just a matter of what we eat on any particular Sunday, but the gathering and an expression of our unity together is so important to us.
We will gather together as a family this Sunday in celebration of the Canadian Thanksgiving at one of my daughter's home. Paula and I, three daughters and their families, our son, the mother of my three oldest girls, and perhaps a few other people outside our immediate family will be there. Even my daughter who is living in Calgary will be part of this great gathering even though she will not be with us physically. We will probably connect with her during the saying of the blessing so she will be able to join in knowing that she is an integral part of our family and it is just not the same without her. It is not that we all agree on everything in this family. It is not that there have been no hurts in the past, but we all know that we belong to one another and we will be there for one another through the muck, mystery and marvel of our lives. Knowing that, the meal will certainly be a great celebration of our unity together as a family.
*
In Scripture meals and banquets are important symbols of the unity of the human family. In today's Gospel we have Jesus saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is like being called to a wedding banquet. Everything has been prepared. Everything is ready. The initial invitation is ignored by some but in the end everyone is invited to share in this banquet. Some of the ones that show up are not prepared for what was involved.
Joseph Donders in writing about this parable of the wedding banquet points out that it was God's intention from the beginning for the human family to be in harmony:
From the very beginning, it had been God's intention to bring them all together in the end, gathering them from all over the earth in their parental home. This dream was maintained in spite of the news about Abel and Cain, Noah and his sons, Babel and its tower, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the Jews and the Pharisees, the overlooking of women, World War I and World War II, the holocaust and apartheid.
Hadn't God given each of them her and his genius, his and her talent? Hadn't God given each of them part of the human heritage?
This dream was so often expressed by God's prophets who sowed its seed indelibly in the hearts and minds of all those faithful to God's will.
Isaiah foretold how one day all nations would come together, climbing the mountain of the Lord. They would share and celebrate, tear away all veils that hide us from one another, tear the webs that keep us apart. All the tears that were ever shed would be dried. All differences and discriminations would be removed, bringing them together to a banquet, a feast rich in food and choice wines.
Jesus told them then, and he is telling us now: "It is time, the food is prepared, the bullocks and the corn-fed cattle are killed, everything is ready, come to the feast!"
But we say: "Not yet. We are not ready....... (1)
Yes, we are called into the banquet of unity, justice and well-being for all but are not ready to commit to it for some reason. Most of the reasons are based on selfishness expressed in the phrases "everyone for themselves" and "Watching out for number one". We stand outside the banquet hall like the elder brother in the story of the Prodigal Son with the celebration going on inside but not being able to bring ourselves to enter. The walls that separate us from the feast are self-imposed, self-righteous and judgmental ones.
Our prejudices often keep us from enjoying the party and enjoying the company of other people. We act as if we do not belong together and that we have nothing in common.
*
I was taken with a story told to Tony Campolo by Peter Arnett, the one time CNN television commentator and reporter, and recorded in Tony's book, Let Me Tell You a Story:
Peter said, "I've got a wonderful story to tell you! I was in Israel, in a small town on the West Bank, when an explosion went off. Bodies were blown through the air. Everywhere I looked there were signs of death and destruction. The screams of the wounded seemed to be coming from every direction. A man came running up to me holding a bloodied little girl in his arms. He pleaded with me and said 'Mister, I can't get her to a hospital! The Israeli troops have sealed off the area. No one can get in or out, but you're press. You can get through. Please, mister! Help me get her to a hospital. Please! If you don't help me, she's going to die!' "
Peter told me how he put them in his car, got through the sealed area, and rushed to the hospital in Jerusalem. The whole time he was hurling down the road to the city, the man was pleading from the backseat, calling out to him, "Can you go faster, mister? Can you go faster? I'm losing her ... I'm losing her!"
When they finally got to the hospital, the girl was rushed to the operating room. Then the two men retreated to the waiting area and sat on the bench. Peter told me how they just sat there in silence, too exhausted to even talk.
After a short while the doctor came out of the operating room and said to them solemnly, "She's dead."
The man collapsed in tears, and as Peter put his arms around the man to comfort him he said, "I don't know what to say. I can't imagine what you must be going through. I've never lost a child."
The man looked at Peter in a startled manner and said, "Oh, mister! That Palestinian girl was not my daughter. I'm an Israeli settler. That Palestinian is not my child. But, mister. . . There comes a time when each of us must realize that every child, regardless of that child's background, is a daughter or a son. There must come a time when we realize that we are all family."
When I heard that story I saw all the more clearly why Jesus came into the world. He came to break down the partitions that we have constructed that separate us into different groups. He came to make us one family. (2)
*
The new Canadian Governor General, Michaelle Jean, in her first address in her new position said that 'two solitudes' in our country has passed and was he time to focus on promoting national solidarity. She went on to say that today's world demands that we learn to see beyond our wounds, beyond our differences for the good of all. She urged unity and tolerance and said that we must eliminate the spectre of all the solitudes and promote solidarity among all the citizens who make up the Canada of today.
That is a good thought as we consider our invitation to the God's banquet that is posed to us in the Gospel for this week. We in fact need to go beyond our national solitudes and work where we can for peace and justice in the world at large.
When we as a family gather around the meal table this thanksgiving weekend, we will be sharing stories of the things we have to be thankful for in the past year. Among them will be stories that my son-in-law will tell of his experience as a member of a team of eye-care professionals going to Peru last Spring to treat vision defects and illnesses in as many people as they could in the short time that they had. Thousands of people were helped to see better. My daughter will mention that she will do the same kind of work in a small country in Africa this January. I'm sure that if Carol was with us she would talk of her part in the work of Artists For Change and the CD that they produced to donate to women's shelters, helping the women and children who have been victims of abuse. We will realize that in sharing these stories that our unity needs to go beyond our family and affect the relationships in our community, pass to the people we meet each day, then to our country and hopefully to the world.
We will then know what it is like to share in the heavenly banquet:
Will we ever be able to say in all honesty pointing to others in the world
and saying "You are You."
then pointing to ourselves, "I am me."
then adding with a flare "And we are a family"?
(1) Joseph G. Donders, Praying and Preaching the Sunday Gospel, Orbis, New York, 1989, p. 69
(2) Tony Campolo Let Me Tell You a Story, Word Publishing, Nashville, 2000, pp. 120-122
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Each year, thousands of women and children become homeless as a result of domestic violence. "The Goddess Within" music project is designed to empower those whose lives have been affected by domestic abuse and to raise awareness of this issue.
"The Goddess Within" compilation album will showcase artists and their songs, written for or relating to those escaping the cycle of violence. The C.D. will be distributed throughout North America and proceeds from the sale of the C.D. will be donated to women's shelters.
More information on the CD is available at ARTISTS FOR CHANGE
My daughter Carly
is featured on the album with her
song The Mask.
The art for cover for the CD
album is the creation of another
daughter,
Mary Anne Molcan.
Another site to access is Ending Domestic Abuse
*
Mary Anne is a very talented artist. She has a new web site called Faerie Artist where she displays her Art. You can access her site at:
