Rev. Father Francis Stevenson, Pastor

Ordained: 1992

Assigned Tahoe City: July 1, 2019

October 11, 2026  

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time  

Our Lord’s parable in today’s Gospel is again a fairly straightforward outline of salvation history.

God is the king, Jesus the bridegroom, the feast is the salvation and eternal life that Isaiah prophesies in today’s First Reading. The Israelites are those first invited to the feast by God’s servants, the prophets. For refusing repeated invitations and even killing His prophets, Israel has been punished, its city conquered by foreign armies.

Now, Jesus makes clear, God is sending new servants, His Apostles, to call not only Israelites, but all people—good and bad alike—to the feast of His kingdom. This an image of the Church, which Jesus elsewhere compares to a field sown with both wheat and weeds, and a fishing net that catches good fish and bad.

We have all been called to this great feast of love in the Church, where, as Isaiah foretold, the veil that once separated the nations from the covenants of Israel has been destroyed, where the dividing wall of enmity has been torn down by the blood of Christ.

As we sing in today’s Psalm, the Lord has led us to this feast, refreshing our souls in the waters of Baptism, spreading the table before us in the Eucharist. As Paul tells us in today’s Epistle, in the glorious riches of Christ we will find supplied whatever we need.

In the rich food of His body and the choice wine of His blood, we have a foretaste of the eternal banquet in the heavenly Jerusalem, when God will destroy death forever.

But are we dressed for the feast? Are we clothed in the garment of righteousness? Not all who have been called will be chosen for eternal life, Jesus warns. Let us be sure that we’re living in a manner worthy of the invitation we’ve received.

 

POPE FRANCIS December 17, 1936-April 21, 2025

Father Richard W. Rolfs, SJ, emeritus professor of history at Loyola Marymount University, died March 7, 2022, at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos, California, at age 98. He had been a member of the Jesuits for 73 years. He had a long association with Loyola Marymount, first as an undergraduate (1946-48) and later as dean of students (1963-70) and professor of history (1974-2016, emeritus, 2008). He helped with the celebration of masses here at Corpus Christi during the summer months for over 23 years! Our sympathy to his family.  He will truly be missed.   To read more about Father Rolfs incredible life please go to  https://www.jesuitswest.org/memoriam/rolfs-richard-w-father/