October 9, 2011
Isaiah 25, 6-10 + Psalm 23 + Philippians 4, 12-14,19-20 + Matthew 22, 1-14
There is more to think about in these ten verses of Matthew’s Gospel than would be required for a PhD Thesis.
1) It is the third encounter of Jesus with the Scribes and Pharisees in just two chapters
2) The parallel between this story and a previous one that told of people being called to work in the vineyard are too obvious to dismiss.
- The violence toward the messenger/servants is the same.
- The persistence of the principal character is there too.
- The openness to anyone and everyone is consistent in the stories as well.
So Matthew obviously would have us read these stories against one another. In his typical abrupt and clear way, he concludes with a one-liner that sums it all up:
Many are invited, but few are chosen.
With this line, we are left to reflect upon the details of the story.
As child, I would hear this Gospel every fall. Matthew’s Gospel was the principal source of Gospel readings at Mass for years and years as I was growing up. It was not until the 1970s that we began using this three year cycle with the other Gospel writers added in. So many of us older Catholics simply grew up with Matthew. Year after year this story would be told, and I would wonder about these details and think how unfair it was to treat someone who was invited at the last minute so harshly.
It wasn’t till I got into the seminary course of Matthew’s Gospel that I figured out that for Matthew this is the Robe of Baptism, and there is something deeper going on here.
In that time and place, when you got to the banquet, the “King” would have opened a great wardrobe for the guests, and everyone would have been supplied a suitable garment.
This is not about the King except to reveal his desire to have everyone at the wedding. For Matthew, as the allegory of this story unfolds, this garment is the robe of Baptism, and this man in the clever plan of Matthew represents some of the baptized who have been invited to the banquet of king; an image of God’s reign. Each of these details represents different groups. The religious leadership of Israel is represented, and they decline the invitation and make light of it. They act in the presence of Christ as though nothing important is happening and they just go on about their business. Some go beyond ignoring. They are violent toward the messengers, or servants who might well be for Matthew, the apostles. As always, their violence leads them to a violent end. It is always so. They destroy, and they are destroyed in the end. Then others are invited: an indiscriminate guest list. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come. There is no requirement. What seemed at first to be a banquet for the privileged and chosen becomes a feast of beggars. When they come in, they put on the garment, the only requirement which is offered by the king. Remember those words in the Rite of Baptism when we robe our babies and converts saying: “Today you have put on Christ.”
This garment signals a readiness to understand and act on the teachings of Jesus. The invited must make them their own. In a sense, as one commentator suggests, the guests are the bride at this feast. Notice that there has been no mention of the bride at all, only the Son, the groom. The guests then are invited to become one, to unite with the Son, and in that union, they must bear fruit: justice, peace, compassion, mercy. But there is one who even though invited and present has not put on the garment, and as Matthew says: as soon as he is noticed, there is silence. He is and remains silent.
Something happens at that moment, and a story that began as a judgement against the leadership of Israel becomes a cautionary tale to Christians. Just belonging and just showing up is not enough. Just sitting at the banquet silently is not acceptable. Hearing the call is the first step. It is not the final condition. Everyone of us is chosen as a bride for Christ. It is an ancient name for the church: the “Bride of Christ”. Hearing the call is easy, wearing the garment, marrying the son is difficult. This idea of marrying the son is a way of speaking about the Christian adventure of spiritual development. As a church we carry the mystery of Jesus Christ. When we enter the church through Baptism, we enter into he mystery of Jesus Christ, but to enter is not the same as being in full communion.
In this story, and in this room there are some who even though they are present have not quite made themselves a bride of Christ, That man in the story thought he could come on his own terms. He did not put on the robe. He wanted to do it his way and have it his way. Matthew suggests that we must come to the banquet on the terms of the host, and that we cannot remain if we want to have it our way; and for those invited silence in the face of this truth leads to disaster.