Today the gospel
talks about the wedding banquet that a king prepares for his son, only to have
the invited refuse to come and even mistreat his servants. A sad situation. The
King then invites strangers to the meal, who have a great time. Then, in what
really is a second parable added on, the king spots a man without the proper
wedding garment. He gets upset and throws the man out where there will be a
weeping a gnashing of teeth[1].
Perhaps you
might wonder, as I know I have, "Why is the Host so upset over this man's
clothes?" After all, this is a traveler or may be a vagrant, how can he be
expected to have a fine wedding garment?
That would be missing the point for the sake of the detail, something we
always have to be careful of regarding scripture. This parable is not about
wearing clothes. It is about wearing Jesus Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, St. Paul tells the Romans, and the
Galatians, and the Colossians, and the Ephesians… and us. The man who came
without the proper clothes is the Christian in name only, who refuses to put on
Jesus Christ throughout his life. This is the person who accepts the invitation
of the Lord, but refuses to exercise his or her responsibility in the Christian
community. We are invited to share the intimacy of the Banquet of Heaven. We are
invited into God's presence. God does not ask a lot from us to be with him. But
he does expect us to wear our Christianity. The way we respond to his love must
be evident to the world. People should know that we are Christians by the way
we live our lives.
Sometimes we
priests joke that our lives would be much easier if it weren't for the people. Truthfully,
it is serving the Lord through the people and being a witness to their
Christianity that makes our priesthood wonderful. One of the most edifying
aspects of being a priest is my continual exposure to the active Christianity
so many embrace. People will call me to
tell me about sick or hurting parishioners. I'll go to the homes of the elderly
and find others there cheerfully caring for them. People are always asking us
if there are any particular families they can sponsor not only at Thanksgiving
and Christmas, but also throughout the year.
As Christians we
have to recognize that none of this should be exceptional. We can't just say we
are Christians. We have to live our Christianity. Living our Christianity may
not always be public, but, and this sounds like a contradiction but isn't,
living our Christianity is always evident, even when not public. For example, a
senior citizen may be very generous to someone and no one, not even the
recipient of the generosity, knows who is providing for the person. However,
that senior citizen's life, his or her concern, his or her conversation, is not
self centered but shows a concern for others.
All of us want
to be happy. Jesus came to bring happiness to the world. We can be happy if we
follow the Lord. He gave us the ideal and example by giving himself for us. We
are all our happiest when we are able to give to others. If we want to be happy,
we have to follow the Lord. If we want to whoop it up at the wedding banquet of
the King, we need to wear our wedding garment.
Today we pray
for the determination, perseverance and courage to be an active in our
Christianity ■
[1] 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time
(A), October 12, 2014. Readings: Isaiah 25:6-10a; Responsorial Psalm 23:1-3a,
3b-4, 5, 6; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20;
Matthew 22:1-14.
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