First, it is clear that the guests to the royal wedding, the banquet of the king’s son, have been invited beforehand. This is not a surprise, they know that their presence is expected at a major event. To put it in common terms, all the invitees have received a “save the date” notice. St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church, notes that “here, by the wedding feast is denoted the present Church” (Catena aurea, vol. 1, pg. 601, 2014). So, the wedding feast symbolizes the Church. People are invited to enter the Church. What happens next? Some of those invited begin to make excuses: one goes to a business, another to a farm. We can add here, yet another goes to his hobby. These individuals symbolize the indifferent. They are unconcerned with religion, they do not care about faith or matters of eternal importance. When he was here last at St. Hedwig’s, Bishop Guy spoke of how much he deals with indifferent people, people who are apathetic and unresponsive to the message of the Gospel. Moving on in the parable, we have others who beat, mistreat, and even kill the messengers of the king. These people symbolize those who are positively against the faith, those who actively fight against the Church and the Christian religion, those who even make martyrs of people of faith: priests, religious, and lay. The king, as the parable says, destroys those murderers and burns their city.
The banquet hall still has space. So, the king asks his servants and they gather people in, both good and bad, so that the hall is filled with guests. In a similar way, the Church – both the universal church and particular churches - are filled with all kinds of people. As St. Gregory says, “He means that in this present Church there cannot be bad without good, nor good without bad” (Catena aurea, vol. 1, pg. 606, 2014). What happens next can be somewhat puzzling to us, and the short version of today’s Gospel does not include this episode. The king goes for a walk among the wedding guests, and in the hall is found a man who does not have a wedding garment, someone who is not properly dressed. Maybe you found yourself in such a situation, where you were either overdressed or underdressed for a social occasion: you were in a jacket, shirt and tie, while others were in jeans and t-shirts, or you were in jeans and a t-shirt, while others were in jackets, shirts and ties. This wedding guest is in a situation that is similar, but way more serious. He is in the wedding hall – he is in the Church – but without the proper attire. So, what could this wedding garment symbolize? St. Jerome, another great Father of the Church, says “The marriage garment is the commandments of the Lord, and the works which are done under the Law and the Gospel” (Catena aurea, vol. 1, pg. 607, 2014). It is not sufficient to just be in the Church – it is necessary to follow the Ten Commandments, and the works to which the Gospel binds us. St. Gregory completes St. Augustine, as he writes that “He…enters in to the wedding feast, but without the wedding garment, who has faith in the Church, but not charity” (Catena aurea, vol. 1, pg. 607, 2014). Charity is mercy: to paraphrase Saint James the Apostle, the one who shows no mercy will be judged without mercy (James 2:13). But, we are also entitled to say, that the one who was merciful will receive a merciful judgement.
The king asks this guest as to why he is not properly dressed, and the man is wordless, speechless. My brothers and sisters, so it will be with us at the end of the age. The King, the Father of the Universe, will ask us whether we have – or have not – our wedding garment. There will be no use in finding excuses, rationalizations, or trying justify ourselves. All of our inner thoughts, motivations, and priorities will be on display. We will then be judged by a judge who is both merciful and just. We will then end up either in the joy and bliss of the wedding banquet, in the eternal wedding hall, or cast out in the outer darkness. What is the outer darkness? St. Gregory makes it clear: “Outer darkness indicates the eternal night of damnation” (Catena aurea, vol. 1, pg. 608, 2014). This is a night that is both completely without light, and completely without end. It too is eternal.
Brothers and sisters, we have received an invitation. Let us not be indifferent to it, or, God forbid, hostile to it. It is through the wedding banquet of the Church that we will be able to pass on to the eternal marriage feast, the one where so many of our great saints, and many – so we hope – of our relatives and friends have preceded us. Today we remember St. Theresa of Avila, a great mystic and Doctor of the Church. This week we will also recall and celebrate our own patroness, St. Hedwig of Silesia. God has truly prepared the most sublime and beautiful place for those who remain faithful to Him. Let us strive for this faithfulness. May Mother Mary, whose month of the Rosary we observe, keep us under Her watchful protection.
(Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, Oct. 15, 2023)