The invitation to commemorate the marriage of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity with human nature is made to every generation throughout history. How is it expressed today?
Gospel the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 “And again Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, 2 ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come.
4 “‘Again he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.” 5 But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
7 “‘The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.” 10 And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “‘But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; 12 and he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” 14 For many are called, but few are chosen’” (Mt 22:1-14).
I – The Imminence of the Kingdom of God
With divine simplicity, the Gospels narrate events of incomparable transcendence, such as the Incarnation of the Word, the many wonderful miracles of Jesus, his admirable preaching, leading to his sorrowful Passion and Death, followed by his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven.
Before such supernatural manifestations, even the most incredulous understood they were living in exceptional times. The generation that had the good fortune of living with the Divine Master and being eyewitnesses to such extraordinary events remained in the anticipation of even more wonders to come. They understood that Jesus’ death could not represent the end of everything that had taken place at that time.
The mass conversions after the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles’ preaching and the miracles performed by St. Peter invoking the name of Jesus further fuelled this expectation. The nascent Church thus lived in a climate of the imminence of parousia, to such a point that St. Paul needed to correct the error of the Thessalonians, who displayed a blameworthy indifference toward duties at hand, under the pretext that fulfilling them was futile (cf. 2 Thes 2).
Two thousand years have passed and the second coming of Christ, considered imminent by the first Christians, has still not taken place. Nevertheless, this ardent hope animated their faith and fervour, reinforcing their perseverance in the arduous conditions faced by the early Church.
While not to be understood in a purely chronological sense, the Divine Master’s admonishment: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17) and the consequent invitation to conversion, constitute the essence of the Gospel, as Pope Benedict XVI affirms: “The centre of the announcement is the message that God’s Kingdom is at hand. This announcement is the actual core of Jesus’ words and works.”1
II – The Marriage Feast and the Wedding Garment
1 “And again Jesus spoke to them in parables saying…”
The passage of St. Matthew proclaimed on this Sunday begins by emphasizing that Jesus once again spoke “in parables”.
Parable is a word of Greek origin (?a?aß???) which, etymologically, means “set side by side.” It signifies a literary style that places an image beside the truth to make it more vivid and comprehensible. Moreover, to this use of biblical parables is added another: the enigmatic expression of thought. They are “a veil that hides the deepest meaning of the mystery from those who cannot or do not want to see it in its full sense.”2
Christ made repeated use of parables in his public ministry. The doctrine of the Good News was very demanding and required man’s moral perfection. Since it frequently opposed existing principles—which were often incomplete or deformed—a complete and immediate rejection might have been provoked, seriously jeopardizing the success of Our Lord’s preaching, had He taught using straightforward language, without souls being prepared to hear it. Therefore, He inspired reflections and touched on matters through analogies, based on common, graspable realities, inviting the people in a gentle and instructive way to change their mentalities and lives.
On this occasion, the Divine Master was addressing the chief priests and elders of the people who, having just heard the parable of the murderous vinedressers, perceived that Jesus was speaking of them, and consumed with hatred, they sought to arrest Him (cf. Mt 21:45-46).
God invites humanity to the Beatific Vision
2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son…”
Traditional exegesis has always interpreted the figure of the king as God the Father, who commemorates with a feast the union of the Son with humanity, in the person of Christ. St. Gregory the Great sums it up in these words: “God the Father made a marriage feast for God the Son, when He joined Him to human nature in the womb of the Virgin, wanting He who was God in eternity to become man in time.”3
From these nuptials was born the Chosen People of the New Testament. From them, all of humanity is invited to the beatific vision in the future life, the mystery of blessed communion with God that surpasses all understanding and imagination.
3 “… and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come.”
For this sublime spiritual feast, God the Father first orders the invitation of the Chosen People of the Old Testament, who should have had their continuance in the people of God gathered together within the Catholic Church, the plenitude of the Synagogue.
Fillion makes an interesting commentary regarding the identity of the “servants” sent by the king. According to this French exegete, this invitation was made “according to the custom of the Middle Eastern people who, notwithstanding the first invitation, would remind the invitees once again, shortly before the banquet. Thus, God, after inviting the Jewish people by the Prophets, to prepare them for the Messianic Kingdom, reminded them by means of the Precursor, and then by Jesus Christ Himself and his disciples, that the time to enter into the banquet hall was imminent.”4
Finally, in this verse, it is noted that it is the king who orders the guests to be called, which imparts the force of a command to the invitation. In those times, the sovereign held absolute power over his subjects; a convocation of this nature, beyond being prestigious, made attendance obligatory.
Proud and blameworthy refusal of the invitees
4 “Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’ 5 But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business…”
The king does not become angry at the first refusal but insists in a fatherly way, sending other servants, namely those who already adopted the Saviour’s preaching and had put themselves at his service, spreading the Good News. Once again we see the image of God the Father, responding to the invitees’ refusals with greater expressions of love.
However, instead of being won over by the king’s goodness, they “made light of it.” In a shameful, haughty and crude manner, they reject the gracious invitation to a royally prepared feast. Moved by egoism, they look to their own interests. “They preferred to be indifferent to the Messianic Kingdom, some given over to pleasure, and others, engrossed with business affairs.”5
Here, the “farm” and the “business” represent the preoccupations of daily life that so often arrest man’s attention and enslave him. Because, as St. Augustine teaches, there are only two loves: love of God carried to the point of forgetting oneself; or love of self carried to the point of forgetting God.6 There is no third option.
6 “… while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.”
The ingratitude of some reached the extreme of killing the king’s emissaries.
These were St. Stephen, St. James the Greater, St. James the Less and the other victims of the terrible persecutions narrated in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul. In fact, included here are the martyrs of every age; the countless witnesses to the Faith who would be persecuted and killed throughout the centuries by those who refused to accept the preaching of the Good News.
The unwarranted hatred of these invited guests was not aimed solely or principally at the emissaries, but rather at the king whom they represented.
Divine indignation in face of ingratitude
7 “The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.”
To properly understand this phrase, it must be remembered that kings at that time held the right of life and death over their subjects. Therefore, this reaction was considered normal by Jesus’ listeners.
With this clarification, the meaning of the verse is apparent: the king’s indignation is an image of God’s reaction to human obstinacy in rejecting the paternal invitation of grace throughout history.
A second invitation, extended to all
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy.’”
“The wedding is ready.” St. Remigius explains, “That is, the whole sacrament of the human dispensation is completed and closed,” but those invited “were not worthy, because, ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.”7 Fr. Antonio Orbe, SJ, comments, “Israel, the former chosen people of God, gave way to the new lineage, acquired by Christ, with his Blood.”8
9 “‘Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”
The Creator calls everyone, according to his mysterious designs, in different ways. After addressing the Chosen People through the patriarchs and prophets, God manifests Himself to all men by sending his own Son who, in an apex of love, dies on the Cross for sinners. Thus, the Old Law accedes to the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, Mother and Teacher of the Truth, to lead humanity to the supreme banquet in eternity.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded” (Mt 28:19-20). Fulfilling this mandate over the centuries, the Church has invited all people to the divine banquet; good and bad—both “those who in paganism lived an upright life, according to the dictates of Natural Law, and those who gave over to their passions,”9 giving them the opportunity to know and adhere to the truth. It is the wonderful history of the Holy Church’s expansion throughout the world.
The wedding garment represents the state of grace
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment…”
As this verse shows, the parable presents certain unlikely situations, with the objective of encouraging reflection. On one hand, it is not plausible that a king would have such a concern; on the other, at that time there was no specific garment to be worn at a wedding feast.
However, this scene clearly conveys an allegory of the Judgement, because the king orders the guest to be bound hand and foot and cast into the outer darkness, where “men will weep and gnash their teeth.”
What does this “wedding garment” really mean? Exegetes and theologians concur in identifying it with the state of grace required of a soul to enter the kingdom of heaven. As St. Hilary comments, it represents “the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the purity of that heavenly character, which taken up on the confession of a good inquiry is to be preserved pure and unspotted for the company of the Kingdom of heaven.”10 And for St. Jerome it symbolizes “the commandments of the Lord, and the works which are done under the Law of the Gospel, which form the clothing of the new man. Whoever among the Christian body shall be found in the day of judgement not to have these is straightway condemned.”11
12 “… and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’”
The king’s choice of words is noteworthy. While the tone of the question is that of admonishment, the king begins by calling the guest “friend”.
St. Jerome explains: “He calls him friend, because he was invited to the wedding as being a friend by faith; but He charges him with want of manners in polluting by his filthy dress the elegance of the wedding entertainment.”12 Or rather, the fact that he is in the banquet hall means it is a person who has the sign of baptism, but did not correspond to the grace of the divine call. “He then enters the wedding feast, but without the wedding garment, who has faith in the Church, but not charity,” St. Gregory the Great teaches.13
Maldonado makes an important clarification: “All of this happens on the day of Judgement, when God expels from the banquet—that is, from the kingdom of heaven—those who have faith, but not works. Obviously they were not in heaven; however, being in the Church, they found themselves virtually in heaven and, had they done good works, would have passed from the Church to heaven.”14
Indeed, belonging to the Church is not an automatic guarantee of salvation. At times, evil ones take cover among the good, but decline the true feast, as illustrated by Judas among the Apostles or the heresies born from within the very confines of the Church, right from the catacombs. It is an inevitable element of this valley of tears, in which men are “in via;” a state of trial. “Thus, the good are not alone, while not in heaven; neither are the bad ever alone, unless in hell. Yet this life, which is found halfway between heaven and hell, indiscriminately receives citizens from both sides. The Holy Church receives them indiscriminately now, but separates them at the time of departure. […] Thus in this present Church there cannot be bad without good, nor good without bad,”15 St. Gregory the Great explains.
Implacability of the sinner’s conscience
12 “And he was speechless.”
“And he was speechless,” because God’s Judgement is entirely just and cannot be appealed. In this regard, St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori asks: “What will the sinner say in the presence of Jesus Christ? Or better yet, what can he say in seeing himself guilty of so many crimes? He will be silent in shame, as the man referred to in St. Matthew’s Gospel was silent when found without a wedding garment: ‘And he was speechless.’ His own sins seal his mouth […] Therefore, we can rightly conclude that the soul guilty of sin, upon departing this life and before hearing the sentence, condemns itself to hell.”16
In fact, Catholic doctrine teaches that at the personal Judgement, the person’s own conscience accuses him: “By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, and receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.”17
God’s sentence confirms a person’s own conscience. In his sermons on the day of Judgement, St. Anthony Mary Claret comments: “All of the sins of the transgressor will be placed before him, proving to him and convincing him that they are in fact his, and confounding him with this knowledge. […] Each one of the sins committed will be shown as on a screen, with all their gravity, and not in an obscure manner, but clearly […]. Oh! Conscience, conscience! Who does not tremble before your frightful accusation?”18
13 “Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’”
In this passage of the Gospel, the majestic grandeur and implacable divine justice are even more evident. The man without a wedding garment is cast into the outer darkness—an image, according to St. Gregory the Great, of the “everlasting night of damnation.”19
When the king enters the feast—namely, at the Judgement—those in a state of mortal sin will be cast into the fire of hell, bound, hands and feet, where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Not everyone accepts the invitation
14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
All are called to participate in the spiritual banquet and receive the eternal King with an appropriate wedding garment. For God truly “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), the Apostle teaches. However, few are chosen.
Our Lord died on the Cross to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven to all. Yet, unfortunately, not everyone accepts the invitation.
III – Invitation to Hope
The call made by Jesus in this rich parable continues to echo in the thoroughfares and streets, for the good and the bad, inviting them to a life of virtue and vigilance. Nevertheless our souls cannot be totally prepared for the great feast to come unless we practice the theological virtue of Hope, which is just as important Charity and Faith.
We were born for eternity and should keep our eyes fixed on heaven, the ultimate goal. But man lives in time, so to nourish hope in this life, God puts before us more or or less imminent perspective, which refer to eternity.
Today Providence wants us to live in view of the hope for the feast to which God insistently draws humanity: the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, foretold in Fatima.
How can our present historical situation which is so distanced from God be transformed into the Reign of Mary in which, according to the great St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, “souls will breathe Mary as the body breathes air”?20 Undoubtedly, a true change of hearts will take place through prayer and penance, so repeatedly requested by Our Lady.
However, we should not imagine that this renewal will occur in an instantaneous act, but rather by a process, whereby innocent souls, or those who receive the special grace of the restoration of their lost innocence, gradually constitute a new era.
Therefore, just as for the wedding feast of the Son of God with humanity, we cannot excuse ourselves based on concerns that bind us to the world, with regard to the banquet of the Reign of Mary. Neither may we attack those who announce it—in this case, the Blessed Virgin herself, who in Fatima called us to follow her footsteps. We must accept this call, which more than a simple invitation, is an ordinance, because it comes from One infinitely superior to any king of antiquity: God Himself.
Let us always be attentive to the Word of God that invites us to the banquet, and listen to the voice of our conscience which warns us interiorly, to avoid staining the beautiful wedding garment of the life of grace, and to enter the eternal feast of the beatific vision where, together with the Virgin Mary, God Himself will be our reward exceedingly great (cf. Gn 15:1). ◊
Notes
