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Church and roused its hatred against her. For us there
is nothing surprising in this strange phenomenon which
had been foretold to the apostles by their divine Master,
and from the very beginning they saw His prediction
verified. Against the Church, the kingdom of God on
earth, rose up the kingdom of Satan and for more than
two centuries there was an almost uninterrupted
course of bloody persecutions. In spite of these as
saults the Church developed by attracting to her fold
the multitudes of the gentiles who were chosen to take
the place of the unbelieving Jews, a miracle which in the
form of an allegory is described in the Gospel for this Sun
day, in the parable of the supper. The banquet hall is
a figure of the Church. The master of the house is God
who through the prophets gave the first invitation to
the Jews ; but under various pretexts and because of
their attachment to their material interests, the Jews
did not respond. Then angry at their refusal, God
again sent forth His servants, the apostles, to bring in
the heathen nations, represented in the parable by the
lame, the poor and the blind. Thus in vivid pictures
the first events in the infant Church are described to
us : the rejection of the Jews, and the vocation of the
gentiles.
In another way there is a relation between the Octave
of Corpus Christi, and THIS PARABLE of the supper which
is at once a prediction and a DESCRIPTION OF THE Eu-
CHARISTIC BANQUET to which all men even sinners are
invited, provided that they make fitting preparation.
But souls that are attached to earthly goods and the
false pleasures of the world hold themselves aloof. For
admittance to the banquet hall each guest must have
the wedding garment, a figure of the purity restored to
the soul in the sacrament of Penance.