Today’s Gospel at first glance seems bizarre. Why will anyone who receives an invitation from the King not come in haste, dressed in his/her best clothes? It doesn’t make sense. Or does it?
In today’s parable, Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. There is parallelism between the King (God the Father), his son (God the Son) and the bride (the Church). The invitation to the wedding feast thus becomes the invitation to join in the joy of the union. The details of this banquet were also illustrated in today’s first reading. On that mountain, all people will be provided a feast of rich food and choice wines. God will also destroy death and wipe away tears. How beautiful is this promise of salvation! This wonderful and important invitation calls us into an intimate relationship with God and to make Him the centre of our lives.
The invitation was taken lightly by those who received it and in some cases to the extent of harming the messengers. When the chosen turned down the invitation, the king extended the invitation to those at the crossroads in the town and they went gladly to the feast. Not everyone who attended is however worthy of the invitation as illustrated by the man who turned up without a wedding garment. He was rejected because he did not adhere to the basic courtesy of what was expected of any guest. He took the invitation very lightly since he was not on the original invitation list. He showed no respect to the occasion.
When we fail to appreciate the gift that we were about to receive or was blinded by the business of the world, we take the invitation lightly and often assume that it could wait a while more. However, if we realized the mistake like Laz’arus (Luke 16:19-31) did in his time in hade, we will regret not prioritizing God first. We are reminded on how blinded we are by our own priorities that we lose sight of Him. As a result, we sometimes turn away the invitation from God and even on other occasions condemn those who came persistently to bring us the good news.
Our God is a persistent God who will call us unceasingly to enter an intimate relationship with Him. In our free will, it is up to us to say “Yes” or “No”. However, our “Yes” needs to come with a desire to live according to covenant of love.
By Claire Toh