 |
|
| A wedding garment for each guest |
|
| |
|
Mathew (22, 1-14) tells about the parabola of the wedding party, the end of which is rather disconcerting. First the story starts well; it is an invitation to a wedding party. It is not an ordinary wedding, but the wedding of a king’s son.
The Kingdom of God, said Jesus, is like a king celebrating the wedding of his son. He sent his servants to collect the wedding guests, but they did not want to go…The king tried again by sending other servants: “Come, all things are ready” However the guests did not care at all, they went in their field, to their shop and more so they took hold of the servants, mistreated them and killed them. |
|
| |
|
 |
Then the king said” These guests were not worthy. Go invite every one that you meet to the wedding party. |
|
|
| |
|
| The servants gathered as many as they could find, the bad as well the good ones, and the wedding room was full of people. He saw a man who was not wearing the wedding garment and he said to him: “ My friend, how did you manage to enter without the wedding garment? The man stayed speechless, then the king ordered his servants to take him away. |
|
| |
|
We have the feeling that the conditions required to enter the wedding rooms are missing in the text. No description, just a sentence and they went apparently in a short time from the place they were living to the wedding room: “the servants gathered as many as they could find and the room was full of guests” There is certainly something not said, it is the necessity to be somewhat formally dressed, likely because for Mathew it was evident. Do we invite friends to a wedding and dare to ask them to be formally dressed? It would be insulting to them when they know how to behave. When we are invited we don’t arrive with dirty hands or slovenly dressed, instead we bring flowers or a gift to please our host.
In the parabola, all those who were in the room knew certainly these rules of behaviour because the king found them wearing the wedding garments and they were happy to be there. So ordinary and rough they could have been, they had enough heart and spirit to accept to be prepared adequately. They had enough intuition to understand that it was a question of respect and love for the others. Picked up anywhere they had probably nothing to wear before arriving to the wedding party. Although it is not said explicitly that the king had planned every thing for them, otherwise how could he blame somebody of not being dressed? Before entering the room for the banquet, there was a large cloakroom, with baths, beauty saloon, clothes made to measure for each guest, a meal ready…. They just had to help themselves, to welcome this royal gift. Anyhow they had to do it themselves, to accept to become a new person, to take the risk to change their life and to head towards a new direction. |
|
| |
|
 |
The Church of Jesus proposes us to renew ourselves through the water of the baptism, to comfort us through the sacraments, the bread of the Eucharist and to “take on a new man created after God” (Eph. 4, 24). |
|
|
| |
|
Among the innumerable guests, there was one who did not follow these requirements, by laziness or carelessness? Untidy and negligee, he was at odds with the festivities. Perhaps it came to his mind at this moment that he did not want to cooperate with the king after all. The king pointed it out and the man had nothing to say. He could not lay the blame on the One who let him in. He excluded himself from the assembly of the others.
Does this single excluded person exist in reality? We can think that he is present in the parabola as the figure of the humanity who is always free to respond, even in saying “no” to the invitation of God. |
|
| |
|
|
