Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Gospel according to Saint Matthew (22, 1-14)
At that time Jesus spoke in parables to the chief priests and the Pharisees, saying to them: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son. He sent his servants to call the guests to the wedding feast, but they refused to come. Then he sent other servants with this message: "Tell the guests, 'My feast is all ready; my oxen and cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready; come to the wedding. But they took no notice and went off, some to their fields, some to their businesses; others seized the servants, insulted them and put them to death. The king was incensed; he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers and set their town on fire. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but the guests were not worthy. Go, then, to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. His servants spread out through the streets and gathered together all those they could find, both good and bad; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. The king went in to look at the guests and saw a man who was not wearing the wedding garment. He said to him, "My friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? Then the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.
«Everything is ready; come to the wedding.» But the guests made excuses: «One went off to his field, another to his business.» All too often we see this throughout the world: this astonishing bustle and ceaseless agitation that set the world in motion. It makes your head spin, so prodigious is the abundance of clothing, food, buildings and so many other things, half of which would be more than enough. We must, with all our strength, tear ourselves away from this exuberance of activity and multiplicity, from everything that is not an absolute necessity, and turn inwards, devote ourselves to our vocation, and consider where, how, and in what way the Lord has called us—one to inner contemplation, another to action, and a third, far above the first two, to loving inner repose, in the calm silence of divine darkness, in the unity of the spirit.
But if the man who is inwardly called to noble and calm silence, in the void of the dark cloud (Ex 24:18), were to refrain continually from all works of charity because of this, that would not be right; such a person must also perform works of charity as circumstances require…
«My oxen have been slaughtered, my poultry has been killed…» The feast symbolises the inner peace in which one remains, acting and taking pleasure just as God takes pleasure in himself, actively, and where the master, the king, comes at any hour to oversee the feast. But the Gospel then goes on to say that the master found one of his guests seated at the feast, not wearing the wedding garment. The wedding garment that this guest lacked is pure, true and divine charity; this true intention to seek God excludes all self-love and everything that is alien to God; it desires only what God desires… The love and intention of some do not belong fully and purely to God alone in the depths of their being, but they seek themselves. To such people our Lord says: «Friend, how did you come here without the garment of true charity?» They have sought God’s gifts rather than God Himself.
The guests make excuses, even though the Kingdom is open to anyone who does not exclude themselves through their own words. In his goodness, the Lord invites everyone, but it is our cowardice or our waywardness that drives us away. Anyone who prefers to buy a farm has no place in the Kingdom: in Noah’s time, buyers and sellers were swept away by the flood (Luke 17:26–28)… Likewise, anyone who makes excuses because they have just got married, for it is written: «If anyone comes to me without loving me more than their father, mother and wife, they cannot be my disciple» (Luke 14:26)…
Thus, following the haughty disdain of the rich, Christ turned to the pagans; he welcomes both the good and the wicked, so that the good may grow, and the dispositions of the wicked may be improved… He invites the poor, the infirm and the blind, which shows us that physical infirmity excludes no one from the Kingdom… or that the infirmity of sin is healed by the Lord’s mercy…
He therefore sends out messengers to the crossroads, for «Wisdom calls out at the crossroads» (Prov 1:20). He sends them to the town squares, for he has told sinners to leave the broad paths and take the narrow path that leads to life (Mt 7:13). He sends them out onto the roads and along the hedgerows, for those who hasten towards the goods to come, without being held back by present goods, and who are committed to the path of goodwill, are able to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, as are those who know how to distinguish evil from good, just as fields are marked out by a hedge—that is to say, those who set up the bulwark of faith against the temptations of sin.
