To enjoy heaven, we must ‘put on’ Christ

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
First Reading: Is 25:6-10a
Second Reading: Phil 4:12-14, 19-20
Gospel Reading: Mt 22:1-14 

Is the king in this Sunday’s Gospel parable kind or cruel? He invites everyone to his banquet, but he throws out a guest who comes without a wedding garment.

This parable must have reminded Jesus’ hearers of two similar stories told by the rabbis, says Scripture scholar William Barclay.

The first told of a king who invited his guests to a feast without telling them the date or the time, but warning them to wash, anoint, and clothe themselves in readiness.

The wise prepared themselves at once and went to the palace doors to wait, for they knew that in a palace a feast could be prepared quickly. The foolish believed that the preparations would take a long time, so they ignored the invitation and went on with their work.

“Then, suddenly, the summons to the feast came, without any warning. The wise were ready to sit down, and the king rejoiced over them, and they ate and drank. But those who had not arrayed themselves in their wedding garments had to stand outside, sad and hungry, and look on at the joy they had lost.”

The second story told of a king who entrusted royal robes to his servants. The wise carefully stored them away, keeping them in all their pristine loveliness. The foolish wore them to work, and soiled and stained them.

Then the king demanded the robes back. The fresh and clean ones he laid in his treasury and bade their keepers go in peace. The stained and soiled ones he gave to the cleaners to wash and gave orders for the foolish servants to be cast into prison.

There are three lessons here.

First, God’s call to us, like an invitation to a banquet, is a call to joy, not hardship.

Second, God gives us in advance everything we need to experience this joy.

Third, we do not know when the summons will come, so we must always be ready.

As Pope Benedict XVI said once, Christianity is liberating, not constraining.

Take the law that if we leave our spouse and marry another, we commit adultery. We did not make this law, and often we think it will make us unhappy.

However, God’s revelation of that law to us fallen human beings, first through the prophets, and finally through his son, can be compared to the king’s gift of wedding garments to his guests. Not only did the king provide the banquet and invite the guests, he also provided them with the necessary garments. Not only has God invited us to heaven, but he has also taught us how to get there.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets,” Jesus said: “I have come not to abolish, but to fulfill.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that he fulfilled the law in three ways.

First, he himself kept it “in its all-embracing detail” down to “the least of the commandments,” as no one could except the divine lawgiver, born subject to the law in the person of God the Son.

Second, he gave it its ultimate, divine interpretation. “You have heard the commandment imposed on your forefathers,” he said repeatedly. “But what I say to you is ….”

Third, he took upon himself “the curse of the law” – the punishments, judgments, or consequences incurred by those who do not “abide by the things written in the book of the law,” in order to redeem them “from the transgressions under the first covenant.”

God, it seems, has done everything, fully satisfying every need, as the Second Reading says. All we have to do is accept the invitation, put on the wedding garment, and enjoy ourselves forever, with all tears wiped away and death swallowed up forever, as the First Reading says.

“This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Father Hawkswell is again teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English with new insights, in both print and YouTube form, at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. He is also teaching the course in person on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 4885 Saint John Paul II Way, 33rd Avenue and Willow Street, Vancouver, and Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon in St. Anthony’s Church Hall, 2347 Inglewood Avenue, West Vancouver. Next week’s topic is Prayer. The course is entirely free of charge and no pre-registration is necessary.