Sunday Scripture readings for Oct. 11, 2026, the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Is 25:6-10a Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 Phil 4:12-14, 19-20 Mt 22:1-14
The parable we hear this Sunday is one of the most challenging in the Gospels — about an extravagantly generous king who throws a large wedding feast for his son. He invites anyone and everyone, only to take offense when one guest shows up improperly dressed.
There’s a lot to unpack here — about the king and, really, about ourselves.
Peel back the layers of this parable and you understand it’s about more than just fashionable wedding apparel. (Spoiler alert: Don’t go leafing through Modern Bride to decipher the meaning here!)
Commentators will tell you: the king in this story — God — is less interested in what we choose to wear; he is more concerned with how we choose to live and how we respond to his invitation, his call. Do we ignore him? Shrug him off? When God invites us to the feast, do we show up clothed with the very best we have to offer? Are we willing to make the effort?
I can’t help but be reminded of St. Paul’s advice to the Colossians, who used a garment metaphor to describe the Christian journey: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another…And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.”
So the real question here is: What do we choose to “wear” when we go into the world? Do we don righteousness a desire to live with holiness and humility and justice? Or do we just throw on indifference? What do we “put on” when God invites us to his feast? Do we clothe ourselves with the best we have, and offer the best we can be? Do we strive to wrap ourselves in holiness and faithfulness, compassion and mercy?
Pope Francis once described it this way, as a matter of grace: “The wedding garment,” the pope said, “symbolizes the mercy that God freely gives us, namely, grace. Without grace we cannot take a step forward in Christian life. Everything is grace. It is not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord; one must be open to a journey of conversion, which changes the heart. The garment of mercy, which God offers us unceasingly, is the free gift of his love; it is precisely grace. And it demands to be welcomed with astonishment and joy: ‘Thank you, Lord, for having given me this gift.'”
I think there is one more lesson to take away from this parable. It’s about the one who is extending the invitation. What kind of a king is this? How should we think of our God?
Jesus has described a ruler with limitless generosity. The king tells his servants, “Go out into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.” And the servants do just that, gathering “all they found, good and bad alike, and the hall was filled with guests.”
Here is a king willing to share the best of everything he has to offer with every soul in his kingdom. He does it with patience and, as Pope Francis said, mercy.
It may seem like this king has a stringent dress code. But what he really has is a code for living the spiritual life — a life spent working daily to make ourselves worthy of the invitation we’ve been given. That means extending to others the generosity and mercy our king offers us, and to show up at the feast with a spirit of faithfulness, gratitude and love.
So, don’t worry about what’s in your closet. In God’s kingdom, a desire to live a holy, faithful and loving life — a life of righteousness — is always in fashion.
Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”
