Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his reflection on the Gospel of this Sunday, October 11, 2026,  entitled: “The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel . ” 

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Isaiah 25:6-10: “The Lord will prepare a banquet and wipe away the tears from all faces.”

Psalm 22: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord all my life”

Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Matthew 22:1-14: “Invite to the wedding banquet everyone you find”

Anyone who reads attentively Isaiah’s Song of the Banquet, presented to us in today’s first reading, will be struck by the fantastical description of a gathering of all nations invited to partake in the banquet offered by the Lord on Mount Zion. Not only are succulent dishes and exquisite wines presented, but true peace is offered, the removal of the veil of death and the scab of sorrow that covers the faces of the people. Mere fantasies? Perhaps we humans have settled for petty dreams and limited the expectations God had when He created humanity. Perhaps we are blinded by our individualistic interests, which restrict happiness to each person and close our hearts to the participation of all people. God’s great dream and ideal is this banquet in which all His children participate, where there are no distinctions, where pain and death can be banished. However, humanity, with its ambitions and selfishness, closes itself off to God’s plan and plunders the bounty of nature, robbing its brothers and sisters of what they need to eat and live with dignity. The condition Isaiah sets for this dreamlike day to arrive is recognizing God’s presence in our midst: “Here is our God. Let us rejoice and be glad in the salvation he brings us.” Now, Isaiah’s prophecy sounds like a challenge, a call to action that compels us to contribute, from our own small way, to making God’s plan a reality. The greater the imbalance, the further we stray from this plan, the less human we become.

 The parable from Saint Matthew adds new nuances to this beautiful dream. One of the symbols most frequently used by Jesus to express the characteristics of the Kingdom is the banquet and the feast, because that is what the Gospel is: a message of joy, celebration, and life. But this Sunday’s parable presents aspects that at first glance seem excessive and even clash with our way of thinking. The invitation always leaves the possibility of accepting or rejecting it, but in the narrative, the refusal provokes the king’s anger to such a degree that he orders the reluctant ones killed and the city burned. On the other hand, those who reject it feel so offended by the insistence on the invitation that they kill the messengers. The construction of a new world where we all have the possibility of living as brothers and sisters, with dignity and respect, cannot be taken lightly as if it were just any old invitation; it is the invitation that will give full meaning to our own lives and to the life of humanity. Every time a person excludes their brother or sister from the table, they become less human and harm all of humanity. This “universal banquet” is so important that Christ became man to make full participation possible for all men and women. We cannot refuse it, nor can we deny participation to others. To do so would distort God’s plan and misrepresent the meaning of nature and humanity.

There are parables that seem extreme to us and that are difficult to understand in our time if we take them literally and don’t seek the deeper meaning of their teachings. It’s hard for us to imagine that a king could order his guests killed simply because they didn’t accept an invitation to the wedding. But that parable encapsulates God’s grand plan and his true covenant with humankind. This banquet signifies the covenant between the king and his subjects and the commitment to mutual aid and defense. Refusal is not merely a lack of desire to attend a social event, but a rejection of this mutual covenant that unites them in the defense of their lives. We cannot imagine God as an enraged king because people don’t accept his invitation to the banquet of life, but we do clearly understand that those who refuse to participate with the king and his brothers in this banquet and prioritize their own interests, whether their land or their businesses, sow death and destruction. We can see this in every aspect of life: whenever someone puts their individualism first, they bring about death and destruction. We have seen it in the destruction and annihilation we are inflicting on Mother Earth. The interests of a few take precedence over the common good. Of course, they can argue for thousands of personal benefits and that they have rights granted or unjustly acquired, but they will always be sowing death.

The king’s open invitation to all to participate in salvation would have seemed unheard of to the Israelites, but God the Father extends his invitation to all men and women equally, without any discrimination. The Lord Jesus comes to give us the true meaning of the universality of all the goods of creation and of God’s plan of salvation. All discrimination, all exclusivism, all hoarding, goes against the true plan of God, who is Father of all. The allusion to the wedding garment that causes the expulsion of one of the new guests has had many interpretations, from the need for grace to participate in the Eucharist, to the more serious sense of coherence among those who participate in a banquet that must be for all brothers and sisters and that does not allow for the wearing of the garment of selfishness and ambition. Whoever isolates themselves seeking their own individual gain breaks the harmony and ends up separating themselves from the true banquet. This image of the universal banquet, so dear to Jesus, leaves us unsettled, and we must respond honestly: Do we believe a world is possible where we are all brothers and sisters and where no one lacks what is necessary for a dignified life? What are we doing to achieve this? Have we accepted Jesus’ invitation? Are we willing to share the banquet of life with all men and women?

We ask you, Lord, that your grace may always inspire and accompany us, so that we may discover you in everyone and love and serve you in each person, sharing the table of life, of goods, of the Bread, and of your Word. Amen.