Today, Jesus tells a parable of a great wedding feast to the chief priests and elders of the people. Jesus begins his parable, “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” (Mt 22,1) Who doesn’t want to come to a king’s feast? The king tells those who are invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.” (Mt 22,3) The king has gone to great effort to provide for his people an abundance of life’s delights and to allow those who are invited to experience the best that life has to offer. The feast is given on the occasion of the wedding of his son and it is meant to celebrate the great love that his son has for his bride.
Jesus, once again, provides us with an insight into the heart of the Father, God, who has willed that his people know the joy and abundance of life. The wedding feast is a great celebration of love and by taking part in the feast, those who are invited are called to participate in the great love story of his son and his bride. The joyous truth that awaits those who come to the feast is that they are indeed, corporately, the bride. The king is eager to share this great truth with his people that he has invited to the feast. How can we resist such a generous and gracious offer? Certainly we would never refuse such an invitation! Yet, surprisingly, in this parable, those who are invited refuse the invitation of the king. It sounds like insanity to us that anyone would turn down such a great opportunity, and yet, sadly, we do it all of the time. God, our loving Father, has prepared a great feast of abundant life for us and we can’t be bothered to show up.
Let us take a moment to examine the call and invitation that God has prepared for us in his plan of salvation. St. Paul tells the Corinthians: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1Cor 2,9) God has not just prepared for us a diversion in life so that we can for a short while forget about the suffering and poverty of our lives. This is not just some weekend party that transports us for a while to a place where we can forget our troubles and then cruelly returns us to our tedious and joyless life on Monday when we return to our work and to the harsh realities of life. God has prepared a new life for us in Christ Jesus, his Son. The life that God has prepared for us is a life of eternal joy and celebration. This life has been prepared for us in love and all that we have to do to enter into this great celebration of life is love in return. Isaiah the prophet gives us a beautiful description of the life of celebration that God has prepared for us in his love: “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” (Is 25, 6ff) This “mountaintop” experience of life is meant to be something that we carry always in our hearts as a promise of God’s intervention and presence in our lives. This is a life-changing experience of living in God’s love. Once we have experienced the full measure of God’s love and tasted of the rich delights that he has willed for us, our hearts can conceive a new hope for the future.
The invitation of God the Father is an invitation to a full, joyous and abundant life. How can we turn away from such a gracious and generous offer of life? What are the obstacles that keep us from ascending the mountain of the Lord and from accepting his invitation to a deeper life of love? How can we refuse the offer of a king that wants only to bless us and to feed our hungering hearts? Perhaps it is a mistaken understanding and misuse of our freedom. We do not see our freedom as an opportunity to say ‘yes’ to the Lord and accept his invitation, as Mary, the Blessed Mother, did. Instead, we see our freedom as an opportunity to express our own will and to say ‘no’ to the offer of a new way of life. Our free will becomes an exercise of self-will. Our own affairs take precedence over everything else in life. We become so caught up in our busyness that we ignore any invitation to a new way of being. No matter how wonderful, promising and generous the invitation is we really can’t be bothered to answer it. We are unconcerned, and disinterested in any other way or path in life other than our own selfish pursuits.
In the Holy Eucharist, the Lord offers to us the invitation to a new and more abundant life of love. In every celebration of the Eucharist, the Lord of life has prepared for us a rich banquet of life through his Word and the Sacrament. Every celebration of the Eucharist offers us a deeper share in the divine life of God the Father. Every celebration of the Eucharist is a wedding feast of Christ, the Son of God, the bridegroom and his bride, the Church. More and more, those invited to the feast can’t be bothered to come. They are not interested in what God has to offer them. They are too busy with their own affairs and concerns. They are unconcerned with the way of God. Mass on Sunday or any day doesn’t fit into their choice of lifestyle. We don’t realize what we are missing and what it will cost us in the end.
This brings us to the wedding garment in the parable of Jesus. If we do answer the invitation of the king to come to the feast, we too often come without changing our lives. New life requires new garments. New wine needs new wineskins. The first preaching of Jesus is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt 4,17) Repentance for sins, interior conversion, and joyful participation in the royal Son’s wedding are all aspects of the Christian life that belong together, each step leading to the next. From our baptism we are called to “put on Christ” and we are given new garments of purity to wear. It is necessary for salvation that we change, that we actually live holiness. Isaiah the prophet tells us: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10) The wedding garment is the garment of salvation. The Book of Revelation also speaks of the wedding feast in heaven: “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” (Revelation 19:7-8) We cannot come to the wedding feast of the King without putting on the proper garments of salvation, holiness and righteous deeds. We are the Bride of Christ.
Too often our attitude is that God needs to just accept me as I am with all of my faults and flaws. The King should just be happy that I am coming to his feast. The modern idea is that God should just accept all people into the kingdom of heaven no matter how they are clothed. They are all good people, why should they have to “put on Christ” or be dressed in righteousness? Why should there be any requirements for entrance into the kingdom of heaven? The king asks the improperly dressed guest, “My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?” We need to change. We cannot join in the feast if we haven’t changed our hearts and experienced conversion in our lives. When we come to the Eucharistic feast we need to come properly clothed.
“Many are invited, but few are chosen.” The call and invitation to the kingdom of heaven is open to all people, but each person must choose rightly. Use your freedom to say ‘yes’ to God and to cooperate with the work of grace in your life, putting on the garment of salvation that has been freely given to you. Only then will you be ready to “party on” for eternity! Amen!