Reflection on Today’s Gospel – Mt 22:1-14
“Many are invited, but few are chosen." We would completely misunderstand these words of the Lord Jesus if we heard in them the pessimistic statement that only a few would be saved. The Lord Jesus wants to tell us something else in this way. He wants to remind us that you must strive for salvation. Our greatest concern should be to attain salvation
Note that those invited to the feast excused themselves by objective circumstances. Someone had urgent work in the field, for someone else it was a particularly favorable time for trade. After all, we are allowed to strive for various common goods. Yes, it is allowed, but with one exception: never at the expense of the ultimate good, never at the expense of our salvation. It is a strange and cursed business when we achieve some finite goods at the expense of an infinite good.
In the first place, the King invites the citizens of his kingdom to a feast. Only when they despised his invitation, he sends his invitation to the crossroads. In the first place, baptized people are invited to the feast of friendship with God. But more than once it happens that Christians fall into infidelity and apostasy on the way to salvation and this way was overtaken by people from the families of unbelievers and pagan nations.
What is a wedding attire? What is this mating robe without which it is impossible to be a participant in a royal wedding? We read in Psalm 104 that God is " clothed with majesty and splendor, robed in light as with a cloak " and in the famous vision of the prophet Daniel, " His clothing was white as snow". God is clothed in holiness. The wedding garment at a feast with God is holiness. Holiness is the undeserved gift we receive from God, is given from our Lord Jesus on the cross.
One more thought
God in His goodness continues to invite: “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” (Mt 22: 9). I am a "crossroads" beggar who has been invited to a wedding. I can be beaten and naked, I can be wounded and lie down, but if I want to enter into a covenant with God with my heart, if I do consider that not a single word or a minute is lost to know and possess Love in my life and at the Feast of the Son of God - Holy Mass, God Himself will heal and clothe me, God Himself will raise me with the power of His Spirit, He Himself - the One Bread of Salvation - will be satisfaction here and forever.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george