Joke: Late have I come for the heavenly banquet! An old couple, having been married almost 60 years, died in a car crash. They had been in good health for the previous ten years mainly due to the wife’s interest in healthy food, and exercise. When they reached the pearly gates, St. Peter took them to their mansion which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and master bath suite, Jacuzzi, and lavish buffet breakfast. "How much can we eat?" asked the old man. "Don't you understand?" Peter replied. "This is Heaven, it's all free!" After a sumptuous breakfast, the old couple went to the clubhouse of Heaven’s extensive golf grounds and saw the lavish buffet lunch. "Well, where are the low-fat and low-cholesterol tables?" the old man asked timidly. Peter replied, "That's the best part...you can eat as much as you like of whatever you like and you never get fat and you never get sick. This is Heaven." The old man looked at his wife angrily and said, "This is all your fault. If it weren't for your bran muffins and sugar-free diet, I could have been here ten years ago!"

Heaven, heaven, heaven, what is heaven like? In heaven, there is no starving, no suffering, no sick, and no death. Everybody is invited to come to heaven and to enjoy the rich food and choice wines just as the prophet Isaiah described in today’s first reading that on the top of the mountain, “the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” What is it top of the mountain if it’s not the highest place on earth which symbolizes heaven where we are all invited to come? But how do we get to go to heaven? And how do we dress ourselves to go to heaven? At any fiesta or party that we go to, there are always some basic requirements. To go to a wedding reception, for example, there is not only that we have to wear an appropriate dress according to the dress code, but we also need to come to a specific designated time printed in the invitation as well. We have to be able to bring ourselves to the reception or have someone to bring us to the reception. The wedding host will not come to pick us up for the reception, but we have to be able to come ourselves. What happens to the wedding feast in heaven? We do not only have to be able to get there, but we also have to follow the dress code to enter. We cannot get there by car, airplane, or any other vehicle, so how can we get to heaven? We don’t have to wear expensive dresses or elegant clothes to enter heaven, so how do we dress ourselves appropriately to enter heaven?

How do we get to heaven? Do we have to make a lot of money? Live in a big house with many things inside? Drive in an expensive car and eat in an expensive restaurant and many other things? It is okay if we have all these things, but does it help us to get to heaven? Of course, we have to die first to experience heaven, but how do we get there besides being dead first?

A man spent all of his life working hard and saving money for his retirement. When he reached his retirement, he was diagnosed with cancer and died quickly after. Before he died, he asked his loved ones to pack some dollar bills for him in the coffin so that he could use them in the nether world. St. Peter greeted him in neither world and took him on a tour. After a daylong tour, he was hungry. He saw a restaurant with all kinds of delicious food. After a filled meal, he came to pay for it. Everything cost only one dollar. He gave the waiter a hundred-dollar bill and told him to keep the change. The waiter looked at the man and reminded him that they don’t use that kind of money. “We only use,” he replied, “the money that when you were still alive you gave it out to help those in need and not the money that you save for yourself.” It seems that to go to heaven depends on how we live our lives in this walk of life. How we live our lives in this walk of life depends on following the Lord Jesus’ teaching. What is his teaching if it’s not to love God and to love one another? What will give us strength to love God and to love one another if it’s not to participate in the Eucharistic celebration often to receive the Body and the Blood of Christ to nurture us and to give us strength to live Jesus’ teaching?

Receiving the Sacrament of Holy Communion often and helping others only get us to reach heaven, but those whom we help will dress us to enter heaven. In today’s parable, the Church reminds us that each time we come to participate in the Mass, we ought to dress our hearts, minds, and souls appropriately. In this Eucharistic celebration, a wedding feast of Christ and His bride, the Church, the Lord has prepared for us two large tables filled with rich food and choice wine. The altar sacrifice of Christ for the Church, and the Word of God proclaimed and preached at the ambo. We are all invited to this wedding feast.

What Jesus invites us in today’s Gospel is not only to be ready, to make time to come to participate in the Holy Eucharist Mass often, but also to wear appropriate clothes which is to have a conversion of heart, mind, and soul. Interestingly enough Matthew portrays vividly only one guess who dresses inappropriately. Why does Jesus mention specifically the wedding garment that the man lacks to wear? When we go to a wedding reception, we want to wear a nice, beautiful and elegant dress for a lady; and at least, a nice shirt for a man. Why is that? What is it different from our ordinary wearing? Isn’t that true when we wear a nice, beautiful, and elegant dress that makes us look younger, lively, and more beautiful? It makes us look anew. Therefore, the wedding garment that the Lord Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel is nothing else but the changing of heart, mind, and soul, a heart of repentance of sins is a condition of dressing appropriately to enter heaven. No doubt that there are some parishes, where the pastor encourages the parishioners to dress nicely when they come to Mass which is all good, and nothing wrong with dressing nicely to Church. However, it would be much better if we could vest in ourselves a changing of heart, mind, and soul when we come to participate in the Mass.

Just as the guesses in today’s Gospel are refused to come to the wedding feast with all kinds of excuses, “Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.” Have we prepared to come to Mass at least once a week on Sunday without any excuse? Just as heaven welcomes all the good and the bad who responded to God’s call to come to the wedding feast with an appropriate dress, we are all invited to come to Church on Sunday and the holy day of obligation. Have we had the courage to respond to this call? Just as the one wearing inappropriately for the wedding feast was thrown out of the feast, have we come to the Mass with a conversion of heart, mind, and soul? What happens if we have difficulty changing, to have a conversion of heart, mind, and soul? St. Paul taught us in today’s second reading saying, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” In Christ, we can find the source of wisdom, strength, and courage to change and repent. Are we willing to put our trust in Christ, to allow him to touch our heart, mind, and soul to change, to put on a new garment, a garment of changing of heart, mind, and soul each time we come to participate in the Mass? May we come to Mass with a preparation of a readiness of changing of heart, mind, and soul through the help of Christ, the Son of God. The decision is yours.