Everyone's had that nightmare at some point where they arrive naked to an important event: I know I have! In the Gospel today (Matthew 22:1-14) we hear the parable of the wedding feast; the man without his wedding garment is thrown out, bound hand and foot, into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The wedding feast is the eternal banquet of heaven, and the wedding garment is Christ, or more specifically Charity. If we are without Charity, even if we accept our invitation to the feast (by joining the Church), we will arrive naked and the master will throw us out. This means we need to live lives of genuine love, and seek out the Lord's forgiveness in regular Confession.
From when I was about eighteen I have had the same recurring nightmare. I am participating in some kind of liturgy, the first time it was a Mass in my home Church with Pope Benedict XVI, but I can’t find what I’m supposed to be wearing. My alb has disappeared, my shoes have gone for a walk on their own, or I am somehow without clothes altogether! In one version of the dream, I found myself trying to force my feet into wellington boots, failing, getting frustrated then realising that wellies aren’t the right footwear for Mass anyway! The week before I was admitted as a candidate for Holy Orders, one of the last steps before ordination, I had the dream every night. Before diaconal ordination it was the same.
Nobody waits for me, by the way. While I’m scrambling all over the place, trying to find the right thing to wear, the Mass is still going on. I can hear the music. I can see the Bishop or Priest vested for Mass and even celebrating it. The dream sometimes ends when I’ve finally found what I’m supposed to be wearing but the service has ended and I’ve missed it.
Being without our clothes, or without the right clothes, is an almost universal nightmare. In almost anyone’s estimation there’s nothing more mortifying than the thought of turning up somewhere improperly dressed.
In the parable of the wedding banquet we read today, someone’s worst nightmare has come true: they are at a wedding, an important wedding, they aren’t properly dressed and the host has spotted them. I have heard of people being politely asked to leave a wedding for being improperly dressed, but I’m not sure anyone has responded in quite as extreme terms as the king in Jesus’ parable; Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Clearly there is more going on than wearing the wrong thing. We will borrow from the commentary of St Augustine of Hippo, the fourth century Bishop and Church Father, to understand what’s going on here.
This is one of those synoptic parables that begins the kingdom of heaven is like. They are always an analogy for salvation and the end of days. The first part of the parable is clear enough. The wedding feast is eternal life, the eternal banquet of paradise. Those who were invited to the feast but refused, who rejected the messengers or else beat and killed them, are unbelievers – those who heard the good news and chose to ignore it, or else to persecute those who proclaimed it. They were justly punished, and in their place the servants gather in those from the highways and byways, calling them instead to the feast. This gathering in, the invitation to the feast, is the evangelising mission of the Church. We are at the same time the servants sent to gather in the nations, and those gathered in the banqueting hall waiting for the feast to begin.
What then of the man without the wedding garment?
It is important to note that the wedding garment wasn’t just a slightly nicer outfit. It was a ritual robe. Also important to note, you weren’t responsible for providing it yourself; it was given out by the host. Here we begin to understand the problem; this guest accepted the invitation, but didn’t want to wear the wedding garment.
What is the wedding garment? The wedding garment is Christ, putting on the wedding garment is putting on Christ. The servants couldn’t see that someone was missing his wedding garment because the wedding garment we are asked to put on is not a white robe that everyone can see, but true charity, born out of a heart purified by Christ. The Master, the King, is the only one who can see whether we are wearing this kind of garment or not.
This passage is a warning, the same warning Jesus gives in other parables in different ways, that those who are without charity cannot be saved. Notice, the man without his wedding garment doesn’t speak in his defence. There is nothing He can say. Charity, the unconditional and all-consuming love of God poured out on us in Baptism, is our only likeness to Him. If we have love, if we have true charity, we can speak to Him. If we lack charity, we cannot. The unclothed man is mute because he has no likeness to the Master.
St Augustine uses this passage to deliver two warnings. The first is simple; being a Christian is not like being the member of a social club. You can’t just flash your membership card at the pearly gates and say “look, I’m a member of the club – let me in!” Being a Christian means accepting the gift of God’s charity that was given to you at Baptism, and nurturing it, and sharing it with others. The way we live our lives matters. Love isn’t an abstract, but a lived reality; if we say “I love my neighbour” but go around gossiping, or saying unkind things about them behind their back, or harbouring evil thoughts about them, or stealing from them, or making fun of them; do we really love them? Of course not.
The second warning Augustine offers is about the feast itself. Charity is destroyed by Mortal Sin. Any serious sin, committed with the knowledge that what we were doing was wrong, and choosing to do it anyway, destroys charity in our souls. Using Jesus’ analogy, it’s like taking off the wedding garment altogether. Mortal Sin is, either directly or indirectly, a rejection of God’s love. Now the sacrifice of the Mass is, for us Catholics, a foretaste of heaven. We are participating here in the wedding feast, though we cannot yet fully see it. Augustine reminds his listeners that to receive Communion in a state of Mortal Sin, is to attend the feast without your wedding garment. He reminds them of St Paul’s warning: to receive the Eucharist unworthily is to eat and drink condemnation.
The soul in a state of mortal sin needs to be purified, the wedding garment restored, and that happens only in the Sacrament of Confession. Only in the Confessional are we given the guarantee that the life of Charity is restored to us after we have killed it by sinning. This Gospel is once again a reminder, to seek out forgiveness in the Confessional before coming to Communion. It is a reminder to make sacramental confession regularly, so as not to be found lacking a wedding garment.
In the Baptism rite, the priest says these words as the child is clothed in their white garment;
N. you have become a new creation,
and have clothed yourself in Christ.
See in this white garment
the outward sign of your Christian dignity.
With your family and friends to help you
by word and example,
bring that dignity unstained
into the everlasting life of heaven.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us the gift of Charity to carry with us through our lives and share with others and bring unstained into everlasting life. The wedding feast is prepared. The bridegroom has invited us. He has given us the wedding garment. Now it is up to us to put it on and wear it.
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