August 21, 2025: Thursday, 20th Week of Ordinary Time

In today’s reading from the Book of Judges, we see Jephthah triumph over the Ammonites. But victory comes at a high price as he must now sacrifice his daughter – his only child – in exchange for victory and the vow he had made to God. We remember Abraham who was ready to sacrifice his only son and Christ, who gave himself to fulfill the promise of the Covenant.

In the Gospel, we have the parable of the wedding feast to which none of those who were initially invited bother to attend. The wedding banquet represents the kingdom and God is the king who sends out the invitations. He has no obligation to issue the invitations but he invites everyone and anyone, just as he has invited us all. An important part of accepting the invitation is that we prepare ourselves properly for admission to the banquet and this means converting our lives to the Gospel. There is a note of urgency in the text reminding us to convert today and not tomorrow because tomorrow may never come for some of us.