For 11 October 2026, Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, based on Isaiah 25:6-8, Matthew 22:1-3, sent in from St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Isaiah 25:6-8
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
Matthew 22:1–3
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.”
I trust most of you are familiar with the frequently sung opening hymn for Mass, “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen: Let us build a house where love can dwell/And all can safely live…/All are welcome, all are welcome/All are welcome in this place.
Our first reading today from Isaiah and the response psalm both portray a banquet in which all are welcome. Isaiah 25 speaks of Mount Zion and says: “On this mountain the God of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and fine wine; God will wipe away the tears from all faces and the people’s disgrace from the earth.” And Psalm 23 responds: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; you spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”
And yet, in today’s gospel parable of the wedding feast, Matthew—the evangelist of the kingdom of God—observes that we refuse to come to the feast. Jesus says, “A king sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they refused to come.” The Earth, our common home, is a cornucopia of abundance, and yet we stubbornly refuse to come to the feast: so much exclusion, so much violence. Lord, have mercy.
Today’s Alleluia verse, taken from Ephesians, can be read as a prayer for all of us: “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.” The abundance of God’s creation poured out on the Earth, our common home, and God’s invitation to come in peace and equity to this feast, ever mindful of God’s additional promise of eternal abundance, this is our hope. And we are called, as servants sent by God, to protect our common home and to invite all to participate in its blessing, even as we await the fulfillment of creation when God will be all in all. We are sent into this world to share Matthew’s vision of the reign of God and together to take up God’s mission of love, mercy, inclusion, justice, and peace. We devote ourselves to deconstructing humanity’s structures of exclusion and violence so that we all might share in the superabundant blessings of creation, and we set our sights together on a heavenly horizon, the fulfillment of the reign of God. The reign of God, here on earth, as it is in heaven. Seriously, my friends, this is the hope to which we are called.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Greg Heille, a friar of the Dominican Central Province USA, a longstanding promoter of preaching in both the Order and the Academy, is the editor of the award-winning “Lay Eucharistic Preaching in the Roman Catholic Church” (Liturgical Press). He is available as a preacher and coach or facilitator for ongoing preaching formation.
General editor: Scott Steinkerchner, OP. TheWord is a free service of the Order of Preachers around the world. You can donate via PayPal to support our mission using the QR code or this link.
11 Sun Oct 2026
Seriously, All Are Welcome
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Isaiah 25:6-8
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the covering that is spread over all nations;
8 he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
Matthew 22:1–3
Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come.”
I trust most of you are familiar with the frequently sung opening hymn for Mass, “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen: Let us build a house where love can dwell/And all can safely live…/All are welcome, all are welcome/All are welcome in this place.
Our first reading today from Isaiah and the response psalm both portray a banquet in which all are welcome. Isaiah 25 speaks of Mount Zion and says: “On this mountain the God of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food and fine wine; God will wipe away the tears from all faces and the people’s disgrace from the earth.” And Psalm 23 responds: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; you spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; I shall dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”
And yet, in today’s gospel parable of the wedding feast, Matthew—the evangelist of the kingdom of God—observes that we refuse to come to the feast. Jesus says, “A king sent his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they refused to come.” The Earth, our common home, is a cornucopia of abundance, and yet we stubbornly refuse to come to the feast: so much exclusion, so much violence. Lord, have mercy.
Today’s Alleluia verse, taken from Ephesians, can be read as a prayer for all of us: “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so that we may know what is the hope that belongs to our call.” The abundance of God’s creation poured out on the Earth, our common home, and God’s invitation to come in peace and equity to this feast, ever mindful of God’s additional promise of eternal abundance, this is our hope. And we are called, as servants sent by God, to protect our common home and to invite all to participate in its blessing, even as we await the fulfillment of creation when God will be all in all. We are sent into this world to share Matthew’s vision of the reign of God and together to take up God’s mission of love, mercy, inclusion, justice, and peace. We devote ourselves to deconstructing humanity’s structures of exclusion and violence so that we all might share in the superabundant blessings of creation, and we set our sights together on a heavenly horizon, the fulfillment of the reign of God. The reign of God, here on earth, as it is in heaven. Seriously, my friends, this is the hope to which we are called.
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Gregory Heille, O.P.
Greg Heille, a friar of the Dominican Central Province USA, a longstanding promoter of preaching in both the Order and the Academy, is the editor of the award-winning “Lay Eucharistic Preaching in the Roman Catholic Church” (Liturgical Press). He is available as a preacher and coach or facilitator for ongoing preaching formation.