“Many are invited, but few are chosen” - Mt 22:1-14
There are three threads in today's Gospel. The first is the rejection of the invitation by the king's friends. The second thread is inviting random passers-by to the feast. Good and bad. The third is the removal of an inappropriately dressed wedding attendant. The passage ends with a moral: “Many are invited, but few are chosen”.
How to understand it? Each of us is called at conception, God gives each of us a mission to fulfill. And salvation is the fundamental calling of all people. God loves us and He does not want to condemn anyone. He wants us all to sit with Him at His feast. So, it depends on us how we respond to this invitation.
We can behave like those invited at the beginning. They were certainly among the closest to the King. After all, just not anyone is invited to a wedding feast. But they scorned that invitation. They said a radical no ... more than that ... they killed the messengers who came with the invitation. Today we also observe such behavior. Among people known from the media, but also in our backyard. How many times has someone reacted aggressively when you have preached the Good News to them?
Or maybe your reactions were inadequate. Because priests must interfere again ... they must interfere in our private lives again and instruct us on matters that they have no idea about. And you don't have to be an ultra-atheist or anti-clerical to belong to this group. After all, Christ's contemporaries were largely zealous Jews, they went to the temple every Shabbat. They were teachers of the people, scribes and yet they did not recognize the Messiah. Well, they condemned him to death. Thus, they crossed themselves off the guest list.
But the King had a contingency plan and he decided to invite everyone else. So: no matter who you are, no matter how you feel, no matter what you do ...You're invited. It is a great honor. Because God does not look at who we are, or how much we have done in our lives. He invites us just like that, without looking at the birth certificate.
However, we must not forget to prepare. A wedding attire is essential. Coming unprepared is tantamount to disrespecting the host. And although the invited guests were taken "from the street", it does not exclude the fact that most of all (except for one) had wedding attire ... and the one "delinquent" slipped by without it. Caught red-handed, he didn't know what to say ... and was punished.
Many are invited, but few are chosen”. What does this mean?
Each of us has a calling to salvation but some of us are chosen to fulfill this calling in a special way. The calling is universal. To be elected is to be considered elite to a particularly distinguished, privileged group but also with greater responsibilities. Just look at Jesus' surroundings. The closest to him were the "three for special tasks" John, James and Peter. Then there were the Twelve Apostles. (among them the mentioned above). Under them the Seventy-Two - (these were the disciples sent by twos to each town and village where Jesus was to appear) Further about one hundred and twenty people (this is the amount required to set up a synagogue - this is a group of Jesus' closest friends and disciples who were with Him all the time) Larger groups of people around Jesus can already be counted among the crowd. Among this crowd there are 5,000 men who participated in the multiplication of the bread. So much for the mini-lecture ... on election and calling...
However, I would like to focus on the question of the outfit. Do we always come to the Feast in a dignified outfit? The literal and the metaphorical. When it comes to literal attire. For a wedding we wear the best outfit, for dinner at our aunt's, we wear an elegant sweater and how do we come to church? What does our outfit look like at the Sunday Eucharist? Watching people, I often have the impression that someone has forgotten where they came to. Let's look at other religions. Jews enter the temple in a special costume, Muslims take off their shoes before entering, in churches in Western Europe there are guards waiting at the entrance, who do not allow entering the temple in short pants or with bare shoulders. After all, this is not a beach and you can't even walk like that on every beach.
I am talking now about the outer garment, which is undoubtedly important because appropriate clothing proves our culture and respect for the holy place. But we cannot forget about the spiritual outfit, which is equally and even more important. Ask yourself: Am I ready to meet the Lord? Are my thoughts tuned only to Him, or maybe I wander with them elsewhere. How often do I come with a heavy, dirty conscience and stand behind a pillar as if I did not want to be seen, as if I wanted to hide so that no one accidentally called me to the center.
Each of us should come to the feast to rejoice. I guess that is the purpose of the feast. And when I watch the people in the church, I have the impression that they have been forced to it. Yes - I beat my chest - sometimes I am not in a good mood myself and I go to the Eucharist with a head full of various other things but always there comes a moment when all worries go away and I am overwhelmed with joy from the fact that I found myself at the greatest feast in the world. At a banquet where Jesus gives himself to us - sinners - as food. The awareness of this fact places our presence at the Holy Mass in a completely different light. After all, this is not a performance with a priest in the lead role but a Great Mystery. A mystery to which one can only kneel.
So let us be aware of this special gift, this grace. Let us accept this invitation with joy and let us try to ensure that our attire, both physical and spiritual, is appropriate, so that one day we will not be asked: My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’
Until Tomorrow
fr. george