Likened to a Wedding Feast

What are weddings like?  They are events that are filled with great joy, excitement, a little nervousness I would imagine, and a lot of good food.  Officiating weddings is also a lot of fun for us priests and deacons, these are some of the happiest moments in peoples’ lives that we get to share in.  There is also something that makes us feel good when we receive a wedding invitation be it from a family member or friend.  The invitation tells us that we are important to the future bride and groom, they want us there to share with them in their happiness.  There is also the ritual involved of sending back the invitation, of actually preparing to go the wedding the day of.  We get dressed up in our best suit or dress, the makeup, the clean shaves, the doing of the hair, the whole nine yards so-to-speak.  We do all of this because it is an important day and we realize the day’s significance. 

Think for a moment how special a wedding day is.  Now think for a moment how special it would be to attend the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God.  In today’s Gospel Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a wedding feast and wedding language is often used when Jesus refers to our relationship with Him.  When we think of the wedding feast of the Lamb we usually think of the wedding feast we will have with Jesus in heaven and that is true there will be that great heavenly feast we will all celebrate with Jesus.

And yet, Jesus already gives us a taste of this wedding feast here on earth, it is what we celebrate each and every Sunday, the mass or the liturgy.  Often we think of mass as obligation and it is that, it is obligatory, but it is also “inviting” in its nature.  Jesus sends us an invitation each week and His desire is that we attend in order that He can share His joy with us.  Listen again, in brief to the words of the Gospel,

"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.  He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come.  A second time he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast."’  Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business.  The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.  The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.  Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.  Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests."

We are obligated to go to the wedding of a family member, be it our brother, sister, cousin, good friend, but if you told them you only went because they were your brother, sister, or friend they would feel hurt, because you only came out of obligation and not from love also.  The obligatory nature of attending a family member’s wedding is a given, just like mass, but it also has to go beyond that, it must be moved in love, a response to an invitation is what Jesus is looking for, just as the bride and groom to be are looking for.

In the Gospel some went away to their farm or business, today others turn away because little Susie has soccer practice, others turn away because they are on vacation, others turn away because they are working, others because the wedding is boring, others because they are their own spiritual masters, and a slew of other reasons, all turning down the invitation from our Lord to His wedding.

There is a flip side, however, those who do attend the wedding must not become self-righteous as it is clear in the Gospel that Jesus throws out some of the invited guests whom were not chosen, they were the self-righteous, where as the sinner who repents and answers the invitation is most welcome, i.e. prostitutes, thieves, and murders will enter the kingdom of God before you (Jesus’ response to the self-righteous).

If we believe that we are truly in the midst of and celebrating the wedding feast of the Lamb, right now, right here, then what does that mean for us?  We are in the presence of God and each and every one of us, I foremost am a sinner, and yet God in His mercy extended an invitation to me. I have answered it, so have you since you are standing here with me, but the invitation goes even deeper than just arriving here, it goes right to the core of our being.  Jesus’ invitation is one of holiness and becoming more like Him.  The invitation is that we grow from what we receive and that growth is that we become saints so that the wedding feast of the Lamb is not just celebrated for one hour on Sunday, but that the wedding feast of the Lamb is celebrated in my heart and soul each and every moment, there is the invitation – how will you respond, how will you respond!!!