Oskar Wermter
Such honesty! She had her priorities and ‘the church bit’ was not one of them.
When the scriptures attempt to describe the ‘exultation and joy of all peoples’,
they fall back on the image of a party. ‘There will be rich food and choice
wines’, Isaiah tells us. It is virtually impossible to describe the joy of heaven.
Even Paul was at a loss; ‘the human heart cannot conceive what God has
prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9).
As we approach the closing weeks of the Church’s year (end of November), we
are introduced to the message of completion and fulfilment. Life may be
extremely messy – wars on the international level, frustrations on the personal –
but it will all be ‘fulfilled’, done, completed – the word of Jesus as he died on
the cross (Jn 19:30).
Tomorrow (16 October), we will bury Jesuit Fr Oskar Wermter, a prolific writer
who was involved in organisations too numerous to mention. He was also a
pastoral priest who served in urban and rural parishes throughout his more than
fifty years in Zimbabwe. But his early life was traumatic, messy, starting with
having to leave home and flee three times before he was six years old. His last
years too were painful as he suffered from a succession of illnesses that left him
discomforted and frustrated.
Oskar did not skip ‘the church bit’ but embraced it fully with all its lights and
shadows. Isaiah’s banquet is now his and we ‘cannot conceive’ what it is like.
Matthew takes up Isaiah’s banquet and emphasises it goes with an invitation.
But he tells us, ‘Those who had been invited’ ignored it. In fact, they repeatedly
turned on the messengers who brought the invitations, beat them up and even
killed some.
The invitation stands. It runs through the whole Old Testament and is renewed
in the words of John the Baptiser at the Jordan. It is repeated again and again by
Jesus. Yet people just turned away – and they continue to do so. They want to
skip ‘the church bit’ which involves commitment and frustration. Yet it is the
only way, acknowledged or not, of getting to the party.
15 October 2023 Sunday 28A Is 25:6-10 Phil 4:12…20 Mt 22:1-14
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