Sunday, 21Jan2024
33rd Sunday After Pentecost
Col 1:12-18/Mat 22:1-14
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
My brothers and sisters in Christ:
Today’s parable of the Wedding Feast from the 22nd Chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew is in many ways similar to the parable of the Vineyard from Chapter 12 in the Gospel of St. Mark. There (in Ch 12) the chief character is the “Man” Who planted a vineyard, giving it everything necessary to bear much fruit. And when the season for harvest came, this same “Man” sent servants to collect His portion of the bounty from the vineyard. In today’s Gospel we have no “Man,” but rather a “King”. We have no vineyard, but rather a wedding feast. We have no servants sent to collect what is due to the “Man,” but rather servants sent to call the many who had been invited to the wedding feast to come and attend – all is now ready.
Beyond those differences, there are many similarities, most specifically the savagery of those who tended the vineyard in one case, and those invited to the wedding in the other. They disobey the promise in each case. They beat, stone, and kill the servants sent to them by the Master.
Blessed Theophylact teaches that the Parable of the Vineyard points to the death of Christ, while today’s parable is related to “the nuptial joy”, pointing to the Resurrection of Christ. He (Blessed Theophylact) goes on to teach that today’s parable paints the transgressors as far worse than those from the earlier Vineyard parable. He draws this conclusion based on the fact that those tending the vineyard slew servants who were demanding fruits from them. But today's malefactors slew servants calling them to a feast. In the first case, the malefactors had something required of THEM, in the later case they were receiving divine gifts.
Who are the people described? Christ is the Bridegroom. The bride is the Church. Those servants sent first are Moses and those from that era of scripture. The Jews did not obey these, but disobeyed God in the wilderness for 40 years. After this, God sent other servants, the prophets. The Jews killed Isaiah. They threw Jeremiah into a pit of mire. Those who excused themselves by saying they were going to tend their fields are those who preferred a life of pleasure and carnality, for this “field” is the body. Those who excused themselves based on possessions are those captivated by things, merchandise, acquisition, profit. And so Blessed Theophylact teaches that there are two (2) categories of excuse makers amongst the malefactors, those who are overcome with pleasures of the flesh, and those who are slaves to greed.
There’s another interesting set of words to be understood. Very early in today’s reading St. Matthew records these words in the parable. (The King) sent forth His servants to call them that were called to the wedding. What did he say? The servants were ordered to call those who had already been called. What does this mean?
Each of us by nature, by that which the Creator implanted within us, has been called towards the good. We continue to be called by that Word He implanted within us. St. Paul teaches (Rom 2:14-15) For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.
This “internal law” which is in every human being is the first call, a call to seek the Source of truth and righteousness.
But God, in His mercy and love for us, sends us other ‘teachers’, to call us from without rather than within, synergizing certainly with that already within, but building off of it.
To the Jews, they rejected their inner law with Moses, and even rejected the call from without by him to them.
Those whom the King commands His servants to gather from the highways are then the Gentiles, those who had only that inner law as a foundation. The new servants, the Apostles, begin to call these. From the parable, the “highway” is the life and manner in which each of us lives. These “servants” the parable says gather all whom they found, both bad and good.
It's fascinating that the “servants” call both bad and good without discriminating. There is no discrimination until the King encounters the man who has entered without a wedding garment! It is the Master who is dividing sheep from goats, beginning here. St. Augustine teaches that this “one man” in fact stands for many.
It's also attention grabbing that the parable has the King addressing the man without the wedding garment as Friend. It’s the same phrasing that the Lord uses when Judas comes with the guards to arrest the Lord in Gethsemane. The King asks the man, How did you get in here without a wedding garment? And St. Matthew records that the man was speechless, indicating that he knew of no way to lie to the Judge, the King.
Before we leave today’s parable, we should attempt to answer “What IS this wedding garment?” What is the parable trying to explain to ME?
We’ve discussed the reality of this previously, but let’s repeat. When a wedding feast was to be given (in those days), those who were invited were sent clothes to wear to the wedding – their wedding garments – which served as a kind of calling card to prove that one was in fact invited. If you’re not wearing the clothes expected, you just don’t belong!
But for the purposes of this parable, the wedding garment identifies one as embracing fully the mission of our Lord. It requires faith, yes, but it’s more than that! It requires love – the love that our Lord showed to us, His creation. We must “wear” that love, proving it in not only embracing the faith, but in caring for the “least of His brethren,” in loving those in need and showing that love in charity towards them, and in openly and freely giving love to even those who see themselves as our enemies.
At our baptisms, each of us sang the hymn, As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia! If we have “put Him on,” and we have done so fully, embracing and fulfilling our charter to love and be charitable, then we wear that wedding garment!
St. Gregory the Great writes profoundly on those of us who stand offering homilies and words such as these to you, God’s faithful. To all of us, you and me alike, who are struggling to find our path into the Kingdom of Heaven, symbolized this day by this Wedding Feast. He wrote this:
Since God’s eternal banquet is our consummation, it is rightly compared to that final meal. Furthermore, we must see that the servant sent with invitations by the Master of the household represents the preachers of the Church. Being one of them, although unworthy and oppressed by the weight of my sins, nevertheless when I speak for your instruction, I also am a servant of the Master. When I exhort you to despise this world, I come to invite you to God’s feast… Let no one despise me, then, for my personal defects: for although I am unworthy, the joys I promise are immense. It often happens, brethren, that a powerful person has a contemptable servant, and when He sends a message by him to relations or to strangers… those who hear him do not think of the person who speaks, but only of the message he brings and the Person Whose message it is… and if perhaps you consider us preachers unworthy, nevertheless venerate God Who calls you through us.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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