Scripture often speaks of the kingdom of God as a banquet. It is not meant to be taken only as referring to life after death but it also shows how God wants us to be in our relationships with one another in this life. The image of people being at a meal where everyone is happy and welcome and where all hunger and thirst is satisfied gets across the idea that God loves, accepts and welcomes us and wants us to make that experience available to one another. 

The host enlists the help of his servants to invite people to the banquet. We also are commissioned to invite people to the banquet of the kingdom, to the fullness of life—as parents, teachers, friends, etc.  In the parable this weekend, though, we can hear the negative in it rather than the invitational. Let us open ourselves to the positive message, the invitation is ours to take up and it is an invitation to a conversion, to leave behind the old, to put on new clothes in order to take part fully in the banquet.