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Listening to the Spirit

Spirit of truth, sent by Jesus to guide us to the whole truth, enlighten our minds so that we may understand the Scriptures. You, who overshadowed Mary and made her fruitful ground where the Word of God could germinate, purify our hearts from all obstacles to the Word. Help us to learn like her to listen with good and pure hearts to the Word that God speaks to us in life and in Scripture, so that we may observe the Word and produce good fruit through our perseverance. Amen.

Listening to the Word

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?' But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen."

Reflection

Garment: an item of clothing. This simple and clear definition can help us to enter in the mysterious and wonderful words of Jesus in this Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The parable of the wedding feast. An occasion with selected guests, but these chosen ones refused and ignored the invitation. Then the offer is open to all. ‘Bad and good alike.’

The words of Jesus, addressed to the chief priest and elders of the people, give a very strong message to all. If the ancient people ignored the call then the responsibility now is on the new people born in Baptism. The disciples of Jesus. The celebration of this Sunday could be called ‘liturgy for times of crisis’ when we must make serious decisions. Matthew in his gospel never stops preaching that faith, the first response to the Lord's invitation, is of no value if it does not translate into action.

What grabs our attention at the end of this parable is this man without a wedding garment. One can say, on behalf of this poor man call from the streets; the servants rushed in and he didn’t have time to think about clothing. The astonishing thing is that the other guests were able to get not only the invitation but also the wedding garments. The king, in Jesus’ time, always provides the wedding garments for those people whom he invites. The man who is questioned remains silent. With this attitude, he confesses and is conscious of having failed in his duty.

The man who does not have the wedding garment evokes those who have been fruitless, who have not "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" or "the new self," to use Paul's words: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”(Gal 3:27) To change garment in biblical terms means to change the style of life, conversion. Here we come to see these last words of the parable, Jesus talking to each one of us, the baptized people.

Receiving the invitation to life and communion with Christ is one thing. Staying in union with Him is something more. It is more than show up in the Church and letting supernatural things happen to us, we need to do our part.

This point in the parable makes us all aware of the danger of what D. Bonhoeffer called the ‘cheap grace’. It means, to take part in this wedding feast without obedience, good works, discipleship, repentance, any cost for us, etc. In Jesus the invitation is offered to everyone, proof of that is the fact that in this feast there are ‘bad and good alike.’ Nevertheless, only those who actually change their way of living will experience the transforming power of God. This shows us that the people who finally came in are not necessarily better than those who refused the invitation. However, they are the ones who recognized the cost of the invitation, and they were also well aware of their own need for conversion, obedience, discipleship. Bad and good together on the same path of new life.

The disciple, the guest in the wedding feast of the kingdom, is not only invited to put aside the old clothes and habits. She/he is called, first of all, to put on the clothes of discipleship. The same clothes that each one received in Baptism and through our parents and godparents we promised to bring until the day of Christ Jesus. We were all called in Baptism when we were small babies now there is the need, as adults, to accept that call.