AMONG THE ZOPILOTES1

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Trying to identify the fellow who, in the parable of the wedding feast, does not wear the wedding garment. A Hondurian reading. (Matt. 22 :1-14)   


The bus is full like an egg. You could not add even a needle. But, who cares! At the first corner, the driver picks up three more passengers and four others a little further, and then two more...and so forth. When, in this country, there is no more space, still there is plenty! On the roof of the bus: a mountain of luggage and even animals…

The bus goes at full speed. The steepest slopes, the closest curves, with the cows lying in the middle of the road, the ravines, nothing scares it. The travelers are cramped together like sardines and are sweating, slumbering, and holding fast. And nobody objects.

Except one who, in his corner, pulls out all the stops in order that no one will touch him. He is smoking and twisting his body so that he can read his newspaper. He grumbles non-stop and complains against the driver, against the country, against the government, against the whole world.

Suddenly, with the brakes squeaking, the bus comes to a stop. The driver and two heavy weights abruptly rise, grab the loudmouth by the neck and the legs and throw him outside. The guy falls flat in the ditch among a pack of zopilotes. «Bye bye! » shout the passengers as the bus resumes its journey.

The zopilotes cast a cold glance at that intruder who has just landed among them. They sniff at him from a distance and immediately move away without even touching him. «Too bitter!» they say as they pinch their beak.

The Kingdom, that is, that extraordinary project of Jesus for an open and human world, is not made for the people who are drags. In that world, there is place for all human beings, good or evil, except those who shut themselves up in their own hell: the grumblers, the annoying, the bugging who are always against everything and who agree about nothing.            

The Kingdom is made for those who are daring and supportive, who trust in life and have sympathy for the ordinary people. It is for those who see themselves as the joyful partners of the God of Jesus: a happy God who, everyday and until the end of the world, invites all the peoples of the earth to the great wedding banquet of his son.

                                                                 Eloy Roy

1 « Zopilote » : vulture from  Honduras

Translated  from the French by Jacques Bourdages

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