A Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

+ The severity of the Gospel of this Holy Mass is remarkable. Those invited to the wedding feast but who fail to attend are simply left behind as they go about their mundane activities; those who mistreated the king’s messengers are put to death and their city is burned to the ground. And, in the end, even one of those sought out and brought in to replace the wedding guests was, when he was found to be without a wedding garment, abruptly removed, bound hand and foot and cast out into the darkness. “For many are called, but few are chosen,” Our Lord teaches us.
 
It is a temptation, sometimes prevalent in the history of Christianity—even in our own times, to interpret these words as implying a predestination whereby if I am amongst the chosen everything is fine, and if I am not then everything is not fine (eternally) regardless of how I live my life: neither my faith nor my moral life count—whether I go to heaven or hell is pre-determined by whether or not I am one of the “chosen” or “elect”. But this is to misread the Gospel. It is an insidious ploy of the devil to induce uncertainty, even despair, as we strive to take up the daily burden of persevering in faith and in conforming our lives to the teaching of Christ and His Church.
 
For the many who were invited to the wedding feast of the King had a choice: to respond or not. And those who, in the end attended (even unexpectedly) had the choice whether or not to comport themselves appropriately at the feast. There is much here to consider.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, became man, suffered and died so that all people of all times and races could find eternal salvation in and through Him. Jesus Christ is Himself the Invitation to the Wedding Feast of the King of Heaven and Earth. But how many of our contemporaries are too busy to accept Him? The distractions of the world, the flesh and the devil consume and deafen them. In the face of this terrible reality the Church—and each of us in according to our particular vocation and circumstances—must do all that we can to help them clearly to hear and understand the voice of He who is the Invitation to eternal life.
 
And how many in this day and age mistreat and even kill those who announce Him and His invitation? The reality of shedding one’s blood for Christ is by no means a past reality, even if it is seemingly rare. More and more, however, in the modern world the outrage and intolerance fomented by aggressive secularism seeks to starve Christianity of the very oxygen it needs to breathe and to kill its influence, denying it even the right to speak in public. Even polite Christian ‘dialogue’ is excluded. This morning’s Gospel teaches quite starkly that those who perpetrate these crimes against the King shall have their just reward.
 
So too, even those who accept the King’s invitation must comport themselves properly. The poor guest found to be without a wedding garment was dealt swift justice—something which may seem overly harsh to our sensitive ears, particularly in a world where “casual attire” (and behaviour) is almost universally accepted as the norm.
 
In seeking to understand this requirement we would do well to remember that the wedding feast of the King can most certainly be understood to refer to the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which makes present to us the eternal Wedding Feast of the Lamb. The requirement of the wedding garment may then be understood as the comportment of the dispositions necessary to partake in the Blessed Eucharist: the conversion of our lives, the living of it in conformity to the teaching of Christ and His Church, the confession and absolution of any mortal sins committed, due penance and perseverance in striving to avoid the occasions of sin in the future. Certainly, as the Gospel makes clear, both rogues and honest men were brought to the wedding feast when those originally invited failed to come, but they were nevertheless required to comport themselves appropriately; to have the correct dispositions. The King’s justice required it. His mercy did not dispense it.
 
The Holy Gospel calls us, then, to face up to the stark realities it teaches, in respect of ourselves and with regard to our brothers and sisters who are ever so busy with so many different things in this world. We must ensure that we comport the dispositions necessary—and if we lack some, we must convert our lives so that we may take our rightful place at the wedding feast without fear of being justly excluded. And we must do all that we can to assist those who either do not hear the King’s invitation, or who think other things more important to it—for this invitation is the invitation to eternal life, nothing less.
 
For the grace of our own conversion of life, and of that of others, and for an increase in missionary zeal in ourselves and throughout the Church, that all those who are called may be counted amongst the elect, let us earnestly beg Almighty God before His altar as we assist at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb this morning. +