Presider: Fr. Patrick Heppe
Parish: Catholic Community of Waukesha

TEXT FROM THE HOMILY ~ October 15, 2023

A lot of talk in our scripture readings about food. Banquets, feasts, things like that and you probably didn't know that your parish priest is probably an expert on food and banquets. I mean you get invited to anniversaries, wedding dinners, funeral dinners, first communions, confirmations and that type of thing. And I tend to be an expert on wedding cakes. The times I've taken and the ones I've ignored. And you know, most priests won't admit that but it's one of those things. But you kind of know what it's all about and if you're good and you're experienced you go to like a funeral dinner, you kind of lead the prayer, and then you kind of wander to the dessert table and then when people are going through the line, then you go through the line, then you go back to the dessert table again, so it's one of those thing. Not that I do that of course! But it's one of those things when we talk about food and banquets. When we talk about food and banquets in the scripture readings that are proclaimed today we're talking kind of about the end of time. What's the eternal banquet going to be like? The parable that Jesus told talks about the king who invited all of his friends and all those people to the wedding banquet of his son. And they didn't come. They made up excuses and they refused to be there. So who was invited? Everybody else! Everybody else! And it's kind of strange because you know they're all invited to the banquet and there's one guy in the back that did not have the wedding garment on. Now according to some of the traditions that I've heard, of the old testament of the new testament in the time of Jesus invited people to a wedding, they were to provide the wedding garment. But one of those things are, why didn't the guy take up the banquet? Why didn't he take up the wedding garment? You know sometimes we get a little stubborn. We want to do things our own way. We want to do things not the way God wants us but if our life is a preparation for the wedding banquet, for the eternal banquet, we need to somehow be prepared. And that's the challenge. The challenge is not so much confirmations and weddings and funerals and things like that, but the eternal banquet in heaven. We have been invited to a foretaste of that as we gather around our altars. When the priest takes the bread and wine and says this is my body and this is my blood, it's a little glimpse of what's to come. And as we talk about the Eucharistic rally that is going on in our united states today, helping us to prepare for that eternal banquet. And that's really what it's all about. And so when we prepare you might say we put on that wedding garment. We get rid of our sinfulness we get rid of our selfishness and are prepared for what is to come.

Entrance: Amazing Grace
Text: CM; verses 1–4, John Newton, 1725–1807; verse 5, anon., fr. A Collection of Sacred Ballads, 1790.
Music: Columbian Harmony, 1829.

Psalm 23: I Shall Live
Craig and Kristen Colson © 2005

Preparation: I Am the Way
Adapt. text © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 CCD Craig Colson
Music © 2012 World Library Publications,
a div. of GIA Publications, Inc.

Communion: Come to the Feast
© 1997, Craig Colson. Published by spiritandsong.com®. All rights reserved.

Sending Forth: Alleluia, Love Is Alive
© 2012, Steve Angrisano, Sarah Hart and Jesse Manibusan. Published by Two by Two Ministries and
Spirit & Song, a division of OCP. Administered by Spirit & Song, a division of OCP. All rights reserved.

Mass Setting: Mass of St. Ann
Text © 2010, ICEL Ed Bolduc
Music © 2011, WLP

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