The ultimate question for everyone is about how to live a good Christian life in response to God’s invitation: Are we dressed for the occasion?
In the First Reading (Is 25: 6-10), we note God’s promises of freedom and celebration on Zion, the mount on which David’s city was built. God promised to unite the people in His temple, where they will live in harmony, putting behind them their pride, hatred, injustice, and war. With joy and life replacing mourning and death, the people will sing, ‘This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.’
David’s Psalm 23, too, famously reminds us that the Lord is our Shepherd. Those who trust in Him shall not want but enjoy green pastures, restful waters, sufficient repose, and a joyful spirit. He is the God of wisdom, strength and kindness, who guides us, walks by our side, comforts, feeds and anoints us. The Psalm that once spoke warmly to the heart of pastoral Israel also speaks to our parched souls today.
Jesus’ parable in the Gospel (Mt 22: 1-14) brings images from the Old Testament closer to us by comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a sumptuous wedding banquet. The first invitees (representing the Jews, who were the first to hear God’s Word) failed to honour the king’s (God’s) invitation: not only were they blindly absorbed in their own petty tasks, they even killed the king’s messengers in cold blood! Much like the owner of the vineyard in last Sunday’s parable, the king now sent his troops to destroy the murderers and burn their city. When he finally extended his invitation to the general public (the world beyond Israel), announcing the universality of the Kingdom of God, there was a huge response and the wedding hall (His Church) was full.
But then, who is the ‘man who had no wedding garment’? In those days, all guests were provided with a robe to wear at the banquet; but here was a stranger, probably a crasher, who had no robe, or worse still, an invitee who had failed to wear one. He is not to be taken for a poor man; he is a flouter and the host shows him the door (‘the outer darkness’). In real life, of course, it is not literally about the clothes we wear but the hearts we carry; we need a change of heart to steer clear of God’s warning about the ‘outer darkness’ (Hell), where souls ‘weep and gnash their teeth’.
Jesus’s invitation is gratis and extended to everyone, but it is also exacting. It is wearing the garment (grace) in a worthy manner that will entitle us to the heavenly banquet. Even though He has invited all into His tent, only those who have fulfilled the conditions will be chosen to dine with Him (‘many are invited, but few are chosen’).[i]
What about us, generational Christians? Let us not be that ‘man who had no wedding garment’; instead, let us live a life clothed in Christ’s love, mercy, and grace. Let us not rest on our laurels but continually strive towards an inner conversion that will enrich our Christian life and the years we spend on earth.
In the Second Reading (Phil 4: 12-14, 19-20), St. Paul exhorts us to trust in the Lord at all times. While he acknowledges the substantial material help received from the Philippians, the deeper message is that God is the ultimate Provider through His Son Jesus. When we are with Him, the Good Shepherd, we have nothing to fear, knowing that ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ Let us, then, attune ourselves to the divine call and be steadfast – dressed for the occasion – to be counted among the elect of eternal life.
[i] This parable has a parallel only in Luke 14: 16-24.