I wonder if you’ve heard the joke about the son who didn’t want to go to church. It was Sunday morning and he was still sleeping in. His mother yelled up the stairs, “Wake up and get down here!” No response. So she went up stairs and opened the door and said, “It’s time to go to church!” “I don’t want to go to church,” he groaned. “You have to,” she insisted. Defiantly, he said, “Give me three reasons why!” “Number one: it’s the third commandment. Number two: you’re 45 years old. And number three: you’re the pastor!”

We all make excuses, even we priests.

There are two points to today’s homily based on the gospel: 1) God wants everyone to go to heaven and doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son” (Mt 22:2) and he invites everyone. It’s Catholic teaching that Christ died for all (CCC 1260). God “’desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,’ that is, of Christ Jesus” (CCC 74). Now everyone accepts this because it’s very agreeable.

2) But here’s the second point, which is challenging and which we probably don’t want to talk about, but which Jesus wants to about: God invites everyone but we’re free to say “No,” and many people do actually say “No.” In the parable, the king “sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.” That’s amazing! They wouldn’t come.

Then the king sends other slaves, saying, “’Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his salves, mistreated them, and killed them.” God is so respectful of our freedom that He doesn’t force us, and so many times we reject God’s love and just make excuses.

When I was a young boy, I forget when, I hoped that there would be a second chance. By second chance I mean that, after I died, I hoped God would give me one final chance to be with Him. I wanted Him to ask something like, “Are you really sorry for what you’ve done? Do you really love me?” Why did I want this second chance? Because deep down I knew I was ignoring God and I knew I wasn’t doing what I should be doing. My conscience was doing a good job and was bothering me. I mentioned two weeks ago that I’ve committed mortal sins. I did some things that were gravely wrong, and I knew it, and I still freely chose to do it.

You know how we all know deep down when something’s wrong? We get sad about it, and mad when people talk about it and bring it out into the open? But then, just like it said in the Gospel, we make light of it: “It’s not a big deal, other people do way worse things than I do, I’m a good person, everyone does it.” And the Gospel continues, “One to his farm, another to his business”: we’re so busy with life that we don’t think about deeper life questions. We’re too busy with work, school and our families that we put God on the back burner.

St. Gregory the Great gives a great explanation of why the man who had no wedding garment was thrown out of the wedding banquet: he had faith but no love. He believed in God but didn’t love Him. What’s the first commandment? To love God. But how? When we have time? When we get around to it? On Sundays? For 2 minutes? No, with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

One of our parishioners is a running a marathon this weekend in Victoria and she told me how she’s definitely going to Mass. Either she’ll go Saturday night or go after the race on Sunday as a thanksgiving to God. I was so edified when she told me that! Because so often we make our schedule on the weekend and then try to fit God in. But she’s making sure she participates at Mass and making God the priority on the weekend.

Jesus loves us so much that He tells us the truth, and wants us to think about how we’re living. That’s why God gives us this parable. All of us have to think deeply and do some soul-searching: am I doing some wrong things and knowingly doing it? How much do I love God? How do I show it?

One of the best points in my life was when I faced the fact that I was on the “road to hell” (sorry for the expression but it’s accurate for me) and thought seriously about what I was doing and how I was living. It was a great turning point in my life because I turned to God and went to Confession. God wants all to go to heaven but we’re free to accept or reject it.