The 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 11, 2020

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.” 

From today until Saturday October 17, I will be away on retreat at a monastery guesthouse and I am not sure whether I will have access to the internet.  If I do, I will continue to post reflections on the blog.  If I don’t, I will resume posting when I return to the rectory.  Diocesan priests are required to go on retreat once a year.  Retreat is a time for prayer, recollection, and learning God’s will.  

The parable in the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, like nearly all of the Lord’s parables, presents us a twisted, upside down world, a world that we would like to say is very different from our own.  After we hear or read it, we wonder to ourselves, What kind of people were these that they would resist a king’s invitation?  We would like to think that we would be overjoyed to receive such a summons.  It is a sign of the king’s favor and would mean a big feast with plenty of food and good wine, entertainment, the chance to make new connections or even friends, and the possibility of gaining the king’s ear on some matter.  Who would not want to go?  But in this tipsy-turvy world, the very people favored by the invitation refuse it.  Not only that, but when the king, faced with wide-spread rejection, sends servants to repeat the invitation, the invitees turn on the servants and best some and kill others.  This goes beyond acting against their own self-interest and enters to realm of insane behavior.  Refusing to go will unnecessarily incur the king’s displeasure, if not wrath; mistreating and killing the servants who represent him will certainly bring a violent response.  Because the one who is aggrieved is a king, he can bring all the resources of his kingdom against those who dared to perpetrate what amounts to an act of rebellion.  And indeed, “the king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.”  The fact that the king destroyed one of his own cities shows how completely he carried out justice against the wicked subjects.  But the fact that he gave them a second chance, renewing his invitation to the feast after these people had already rejected it, shows that he offered mercy first.  When mercy is rejected, justice will prevail.

The ones who were first invited to the feast were the leaders and officials of the people.  A king would not invite common subjects, but members of his court and those charged with various governmental functions.  The fact that they rebelled would have especially infuriated the king, but it also sheds light on the extent of his mercy in giving these people whose rejection of his summons was calculated and contemptuous.  They owed their positions to him and their livelihoods depended on his goodwill.  The insanity of their rebellion is even more evident by the fact that there was no way they could win.  There was no possible positive outcome for them.  We can see here the rebellion of the wicked angels against God, and how their fate: “And they prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Revelation 12, 8).  That is, they were “killed” and their “city”, their life in heaven, “burned”.  In their place God has invited humans.  All humans are called — “the bad and the good alike”.  That is to say, those who had been bad but who had repented sufficiently that they would obey the king’s summons.  The men and women who come into heaven literally take the places of the fallen angels.  These men and women prove themselves worthy simply by the fact of their desire to enjoy the king’s — God’s — hospitality.  But those who obstinately intend to remain wicked are not welcome in heaven.  Even if such a one attempted to enter, he would be cast out.  This is the case with the man not wearing his wedding garment, supplied by the king and a sign of his love of the king and the king’s son.  This wedding garment is the baptismal garment with which we are first clothed in the Faith.  Though it has been besmirched by the spots of sins, still it has been laundered by the Blood of the Lamb and made dazzling white.  It is also the sign of the virtues of the faithful.  The one who attempts to enter without it will be cast out “into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  That is, the wailing of eternal loss, and the grinding of frustration at losing something that had been one for them.

“Many are called but few are chosen.”  The few who are chosen are the ones who love God, serve him, and wait all their lives for the invitation to the wedding feast of his Son.