Our Mother of Perpetual Help Parish of Oak Park and Ferndale recently released a bulletin with a gospel meditation on accepting invitations to life events, where God invites his followers to live full lives and that there are so many events you can attend.

"The banquet is ready, and the tables are set. Come! There is so much to attend to in the everydayness of our lives. We have plans, after all. There is never enough time and so much that needs to be done. There is work, children, and grandchildren, paying the bills, planning for retirement, figuring out the details of our next vacation, making sure we are on top of our game with work, planning social engagements, answering emails, texts, and getting our latest pictures on Facebook. There is always something. What is this about some banquet?" the church said in its bulletin. 

The meditation continued to discuss how people can feel overwhelmed trying to balance activities in our daily lives, especially when it comes to events such as wedding invitations. Jesus spoke about how to handle such invites.

"Both the good and bad were invited to the wedding banquet. As the king meets with his newly invited quests, he eyes a man not properly dressed for such an occasion. The king had the man thrown out of the banquet hall into the night. Jesus finished this parable with 'the invited are many, the elect are few,'" the church said in the bulletin.

Matthew's account of this parable presents that both the "good and bad" (Mt 22:10) were invited to the banquet which calls to mind the parable of the seed (Mt 13:24-30) and the parable of the dragnet (Mt 13:47-50). In both parables there will be a separation of what is good and what is bad. The evangelist also presents the incident of the improperly dress quest (Mt 22:12) which states that not all invited will share in the celebration in the Reign of God (Mt 22:14) of how one presents himself. Matthew has an underlying message to the Christian community related to how one "dresses" for the banquet. He is stating one might state he is a Christian but does he "dresses" as a Christian by living a righteous Christian life. Does he have the outward appearance of a Christian in thought, word and deed."

This story of Jesus can help put into perspective how to dress for an event and accept an invitation.