23 August 2018
Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
Again this week we hear the comparison of union with God to a wedding feast. How great is the generosity of the Lord. Some people want to try and maintain a distance from the Lord, avoiding places, people or conversations that point them towards God. At times this avoidance stems from a fear that the Lord makes unreasonable demands on His people. As the image of the wedding feast conveys, however, the Lord does not so much demand that His people give as He does invite them to receive what He has to give. The image of a wedding feast conveys the two fold nature of what He wishes to give: it is a feast, showing us that he wishes to abundantly provide for our every need; and it is a wedding, reminding us that above any mere created gift, our Creator and Lord wishes to gives us His very self. Are we as willing to receive what the Lord has to offer as He is willing give?
The image of the feast is further elaborated. Jesus tells us in this parable that the hall for the feast was filled with guests. In a way, everyone present had fulfilled step one of the invitation: simply to come to the feast. St. John Chrysostom, preaching on this Gospel, explains this first step as that of entering the Church and believing in Christ. Chrysostom goes on to explain, however, that we must also put on the wedding garment of living and acting according to our faith in Christ. Understood in this way, we may see why the expulsion of the man who was not dressed in a wedding garment in the parable reflects that guest’s neglect, rather than pickiness on the part of the king hosting the feast. Given the king’s great generosity in providing a feast for so many, we might also imagine him providing the wedding garments for the guests. Certainly, following Chrysostom, our Lord does not withhold from us the grace to live out the Christian life to which He has invited us. The king suffers from no lack of generosity, but the guest does indeed appear half-hearted in his desire to receive all that the king has to offer.
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to be zealous guests at the feast to which He invites us. Let us ask for hearts that are clean and new, which the Lord offers us. Indeed, let us welcome Christ the Bridegroom who comes to offer us His very own heart every time we receive Him in the Eucharist. Clothed with such garments, let us go forth to serve our Lord in serving our neighbors whom He so loves.