Over the last few weeks we have been hearing several Parables told by
Jesus. These Parables describe the
Kingdom of God to the Pharisees, the chief priest, the elders, his disciples,
to the people and to us. We know Jesus
often used Parables to illustrate a point and to use situations commonly
understood by the people to give them a glimpse of something supernatural. It was also intended that something about the
Parable would shock the listener.
This Parable seems a bit more challenging than the others. We hear of a King who is throwing a great
wedding feast for His Son. He invites
many guests. Prepares the feast. Sends his servants to summon the invited
guests, but they refuse to come. Why
would they refuse to come to a great wedding feast put on by the king? He sends servants a second time telling them
everything is ready, come, eat, enjoy the feast! Some ignored the invitation and went back to
work. I like my job, but I know I
wouldn't turn down a feast and opt for work instead. Even more surprising, the invited guests
turned on the King's servants and killed them!
Perhaps they should have said "Don't shoot the messenger!"
The king, furious, now has his troops sent out to destroy the invited
guests. He then sends the servants out
to the street and to invite anyone they can find to enjoy the feast he has
prepared, A feast fit for a King you might say!
He invites the good and the bad.
Then the king comes in to meet the guests. And when he finds one of the guests without a
wedding garment on, he has him bound hand a foot and casts him in to the
darkness. What's going on here? Why is this poor person, who was just invited
off the street and arrives without proper clothing, tossed out of the feast?
Well, as we often hear, God doesn't see things as we see things. So from this view there is more here than we
may initially think. After all, Jesus is
telling us this Parable to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Not what our expectations are. But what it is really like, by using an
environment that we can relate to - a wedding feast.
In studying this reading, I found an author in my library who had written
over 50 pages reflecting on these fourteen verses of Scripture! When I mentioned this to Fr Von, he advised
me not to deliver a 50 page Homily. Not
to worry - I was the person in school that when the teacher asked us to write 5
pages, I was done at four and a half.
But clearly, 50 pages told me there is a lot going on here that I didn't
see.
Delving just a bit deeper, it becomes clear that the King represents God
and the feast is for his Son, Jesus.
Those that chose not to come, rejected the King's invitation on their
own, and so rejected the invitation to the Kingdom of God. But then what about the guests who did
come. The King sent his servants out to
invite all they found. He invited the
good and the bad. He has invited you and
me. We are all invited to the Wedding
Feast. Here at Mass today. The Sacrifice of the Mass today can be
compared to the Wedding Feast of the King for His Son, Jesus. And we have responded to that invitation by
coming to the Feast. But, are we clothed
with the proper garment?
Scripture gives us many references to Christ Himself as the
bridegroom. And His bride is the
Church. That makes each of us here an
integral, intimate part of the wedding feast we hear today in Jesus Parable
about the Kingdom of Heaven.
At our baptism, we were claimed for Christ. We became heirs to the Kingdom of
Heaven. This was won for us by Christ's
sacrifice on the cross. The rest of our
lives from the moment of our baptism, we are deciding how to respond to that
gift. At our Baptism, we are clothed
with a white garment. This white garment
symbolizes that we have put on Christ.
We are a new Creation and free from sin at the moment of our Baptism. Now anyone baptized as an infant probably won't
remember this, be we are regularly reminded of it in scripture. We have put on Christ. We are invited to the wedding feast. We become heirs to the Kingdom of God.
So how can we be sure that we are not like the man in the parable, unprepared
for the feast, not dressed in the proper wedding garment? Our wedding garment is a spiritual one. We must develop the selfless love that we are
called to by Christ at our baptism and use the grace we are blessed with
throughout our lives. Jesus gives us the
answer directly, we must love God with all our soul, all our heart and all our
strength. So God is number one! Easily said, but then the real world enters
in with its distractions and challenges.
And then, we must love our neighbor as our selves. Look around you. Everyone here is our neighbor. The people we work with are our
neighbors. The boss, or the coworker who
irritates us is our neighbor. The family
member who doesn't do or say what we expect from them is our neighbor. Many times the disciples didn't do or say
what Jesus would have wanted from them.
But His love for them never wavered.
If someone asked you why you were Catholic, what would you say to them?
God wants us to share in the same love the He shares with
Jesus. That is the Wedding Garment we
need to adorn ourselves with. The Mass
we are participating in today as a community gives that glimpse of what the
eternal, heavenly banquet is like. We
have been invited guests. May we strive
to put on Christ and bring Him to the world and love each other as He loves us.
May God give you peace.
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