The Gospel story is about celebrating a wedding. But those who are invited “refused to come.” “Some ignored the invitation and went away.” “The rest laid hold of the messengers, mistreated them, and killed them.” Other messengers went to “the main roads and invited” all “to the feast,” “and the hall was filled with guests.” However, one guest “was not dressed in a wedding garment.” “His hands and feet” were bound “and he was cast into the darkness outside.”
The Gospel story is disconcerting, perhaps difficult to understand. It’s disconcerting to hear of messengers of good news being rejected, mistreated, and murdered. How do we understand the seeming happy ending being marred by a man rather inexplicably thrown out. Applied to our time the parable remains disconcerting but understandable. Today’s story is about celebrating women; women’s human rights, dignity, freedom. But the men who are invited to the celebration are refusing it. Some men persist in taking hold of the women, raping them, even killing them. The man thrown out is every man unwilling to take off the old and put on the new. The old is patriarchy. Too many men will not throw out the old that is patriarchy. Patriarchy adorns, among other places, the Oval Office, corporate board rooms, churches, and frat houses. Too many men will not put on the new. The new is… What is the new? Is it equality? Equality is sometimes put forth as the goal for women. Equality has meant that like men, women too can be rulers, CEOs, priests, and sorority sisters. It means that when women reach that goal of degrees of equality in patriarchy’s institutions, men can speak of ‘both sides.’ Like how horrible sororities are with their superficiality and meanness and apparently so equal to frat houses with their hazing deaths and rapes. How sad such a vision of ‘new.’ Sad not because it centers men. Sad because it centers the masculine stereotype. What does it mean to be a man in a patriarchal world with its masculine stereotype? It means I have to worry, Can I cry? Can I fail? Can I listen? Can I be less a hero and more a friend? Can I be whole? Can I be a human being? Or can I only be masculine? The masculine stereotype has so many advantages for men. It enables men to control all positions of rule across politics, finances, and ethics. It enables men to force upon women burdens of subservience, unpaid labor, and being target practice. It enables men to reject, mistreat, and murder women – and rarely be held accountable. Too many instances, so as to be routine, so as to be normal, is the violence men do to women – as is the secondary violence men in positions of rule do to women when they do not hold the first violators accountable – so the men can reject, rape, and murder women again and again. What does it mean to be a woman in a patriarchal world with its masculine stereotype? It means I ask; What are our tools to take it apart? What is the women’s world we build in its place? The ‘old’ which every man must take off is patriarchy. What’s the ‘new’ every man must put on? It’s the celebration of women.
“I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me… It’s the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can’t touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them, They say they still can’t see. I say, It’s in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me. Now you understand Just why my head’s not bowed. I don’t shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud… ’Cause I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.” (Phenomenal Woman – Maya Angelou)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, guide us in celebrating women.
Question: How do I celebrate women and what is the women’s world I ‘m building?
October 11, 2026 Gospel Matthew 22:1-14 Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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