Invited to the wedding feast

A reflection on the Gospel of Matthew 22:1-14

Transcript

00:00 My background is in the theater and I remember in graduate school learning something fascinating.

00:07 Tragedies, you know, they all end in death. It's very sad.

00:12 But comedies, they all end the same way. And do you know how they end?

00:17 They all end with a wedding. Look at all of Shakespeare's plays.

00:22 They all, that are comedies, they all end with a wedding. Why?

00:26 Because comedies are plays that have a happy ending. They're about happiness.

00:33 And the greatest symbol of happiness that we know as human beings is the wedding feast.

00:40 So when we look at the parable this weekend, which is a really hard one to hear,

00:45 about the father who invites all the people to the wedding feast, but they say no.

00:51 And they reject him. What they're really rejecting is the possibility for happiness in their own life.

00:59 And Jesus tells this parable just a few days before he dies,

01:04 because he wants to invite us into the happiness that we're, all of us, just craving.

01:12 The wedding feast is a way to bolster our hope.

01:16 Do you ever notice at weddings, people very often cry. Well, why do they cry?

01:22 It's not because the bridegroom is homely.

01:25 It's because there's this mystery of a husband and wife coming together

01:31 is a sign of the eternal love that we, all of us, want in our own life.

01:38 The possibility and the promise, the life that comes from marriage.

01:44 And also, it's a wedding feast.

01:47 And how can we not think about the Eucharist and the tremendous grace that is given to us

01:53 by believing in faith and the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist,

01:57 a feast that constantly feeds us in every possible way,

02:02 nurturing and nourishing the greatest longings in our life.

02:06 And in terms of faith, we're invited to the wedding feast because Jesus looks upon us as his beloved,

02:13 and he wants us to participate in that love, so much so that he even gives us what to wear at the wedding,

02:20 like this very strange part about the man who's refusing to put on the wedding garment.

02:25 What's the wedding garment?

02:27 It reminds us of that white garment that was put on you when you were baptized.

02:31 You belong to Jesus Christ.

02:33 The more we embrace that belonging and come to the feast, no matter what's going on in our life,

02:38 things are going to change. There's going to be new hope.

02:41 We're going to be embraced with a love we never knew could take over our life,

02:47 and we're going to find a faith that gives us the strength to persevere,

02:53 no matter what life puts before us.

02:55 The wedding feast is our life.

02:58 [Silence]