Thursday in the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time, August 19, 2021

Matthew 22:1-14

Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the 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 the king 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. He 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.”

Whereas the Parable of the Generous Landowner in yesterday’s Gospel reading speaks of the mystery of God’s generosity, the Parable of the King’s Feast, our Gospel reading for today’s Mass, tells of the mystery of man’s lack of generous response to God’s invitation.  

“He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.”  The wedding feast had been announced well in advance and the guests had already received their invitations.  The summoning here is a formality.  The servants making the summons were attired in festal clothing.  The guests consisted of lesser nobles and wealthy landowners.  The invitation to the son’s wedding feast provides the local gentry an opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty to the king as well as their good wishes for the newly married couple.  The invitation is also a sign of the king’s favor.  All of this apart from the food, the entertainment, and the chance to renew relationships with neighboring nobles and landowners.

“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 behavior the Lord describes here is outrageous.  In its way, it is as bizarre as the Lord’s telling of the half a billion dollar loan a king made to his servant, in another parable (Matthew 18, 22-35).  The outlandish nature of the actions of the invited guests tells us that the Lord wants us to pay close attention to it.  This is the central point of the parable.  

“The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.”  While the king’s reaction may seem extreme, in the context of the Ancient Near East, it is perfectly logical and foreseeable.  The invited guests — important, wealthy, and influential people within his realm, sent a message to him with their behavior: they spurned him, held him in contempt, and showed disloyalty.  The next step for them would be open rebellion, perhaps inviting a neighboring king to invade the land.  This disloyalty presented a threat to the king’s reign and to his life, and he immediately sends out his army to destroy his enemies.

“Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.”  Now begins what is almost a second parable.  In it, the king dispenses with the idea of inviting his fellow rich friends to the wedding feast and now simply wants to fill his hall.  He will take anyone in: “The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.”  The Lord notably describes the guests in moral terms: “bad and good alike”.  “When the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.”  The king, having made his official entrance and words of welcome to the guests, makes his way among them, “the bad and the good alike”, and he meets up with a bad guest, one not wearing the wedding garment — either his own or one provided for him by the attendants.  This is an insult to the bride and the groom as well as to the host.  The king could throw him out at this point but instead he engages the fellow in conversation, as though to draw him into awareness of his improper dress: “My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?”  The Greek text does not have the king addressing the man as “friend” but as “comrade” or “companion”.  We should note here that the king is addressing in this manner someone gathered from the highways and byways, treating him as an equal.  Perhaps it is this generosity that causes the man “to be silenced”, as the Greek says.  That is, the man knows full well that he is without a wedding garment.  He is showing contempt through this.  And yet the king speaks to him, and speaks to him in this way, as though they had been on terms of intimacy for some time.  The silence, however, is the final sign of insolence, and the king has him put out.  And not just put out: “Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  Harsh though the punishment may be, it is commensurate with the crime.

The actions, in the parable, of the invited guest and the guest without his wedding garment defy reason.  When a person desires to do another a good turn, it is not natural to insult him for this desire.  To do this is indicative of great hatred within the person.  Even so, a person ought to see that it is in his own best interests to receive the good, whether or not he cares for the person that offers it.  It is simply perverse to do otherwise.  The incandescent hatred of God and of religion, especially in our society today, is a mystery, but it is very real.  What drives a person’s hatred of God?  Ultimately it is pride, but it is still hard to understand the level of pride that results in such fury.  We should take great care in our lives not to give in to the temptation to see ourselves as independent, “autonomous”, and masters of our own destiny.  This can begin with such a petty thing as vanity or coveting an object possessed by another, and this can spin out of control very quickly — even so that a person is unaware of it — into a ferocious pride that can hardly abide any other individual, and God least of all.

The Lord concludes his parable, saying, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”  That is, all are invited, but few choose to go.  Let not pride bind us and keep us in the darkness outside.