The Parable of the Wedding Feast
It is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time and once more we have another Parable which our Lord Jesus Christ uses to emphasize his teaching to either his disciples or the Jews. Today's scripture comes from Matt.22: 1-14, which is entitled "The Parable of the Wedding Feast."
"22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 "Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.' 5 "But they paid no attention and went off-one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 "Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, 'How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?' The man was speechless. 13 "Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 "For many are invited, but few are chosen."
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This parable is similar to the previous parables that we have encountered. The King in this parable is God himself and the wedding is for his only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ and the first ones that he invited to the wedding banquet are the Israelites, who are considered the first-born children of God. But despite the massive preparations for the wedding of the King's son, the Israelites refused the King's invitation.
Still the King pressed on, telling his servants to go out and announce that the wedding feast is ready and the fattened calf already slaughtered and asked the guests to come already. Weddings in Israel are a very joyous occasion. Depending on the status of the father of the groom, a wedding feast could last a whole week. But still they refused the King's invitation and worse, they seized the servants maltreated them and killed one of them. When the King heard of what they did to his servants, he sent his army to destroy their city.
So now the King asked his servants to go into the streets and invite anyone they could find in order to fill the wedding hall. When the wedding feast was underway, the King noticed a man who did not wear the proper wedding garments. Let me repeat this portion in today's gospel when the King talked to this man. 'How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?' The man was speechless. 13 "Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14 "For many are invited, but few are chosen."
To understand this parable, one would think that the King was just too harsh to the man without the proper wedding clothes. But then, this parable starts with the phrase "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son." Therefore we are talking about heaven where clothes or other material things do not really matter. What is required of us is to wear the garment of humility, obedience, charity, and love for us to be allowed in heaven. If we do not have these in our hearts, then we have not earned God's invitation to enter his heavenly kingdom.
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