refusal

Mt 22:1-14
In today's gospel we hear the parable of the wedding feast.  A banquet is prepared and yet the guest refuse to come.  The king invites whomever they find.

An open invitation to the "good and bad" alike.  The hall is filled with the lowest and meanest and brightest and best.  All are united.

The king arrives to inspect the guest and he spies one who is not dressed for the occasion.

What begins as a party and a banquet of celebration turns into a judgment scene.

The king has an eye for the one who does not belong.

What always moves me about this parable is the address of the King to the guest who does not have a wedding garment, "My friend how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?"

There is a presupposition that a wedding garment was either offered and refused or the man's own hard heart refused to dress up for the occasion knowing full well the importance of the feast.

Either way the silence of the man speaks volumes.  In a moment of a glance, the man's soul was laid bare and was found wanting.

What is striking is that the king does not talk down to him.  He addresses him as friend.  The invitation itself should inspire the man to change his heart and to seek forgiveness, to beg for pardon and yet he remains like stone, hard in his pride and obstinate in his determination to be his own man, choose his own way.

Simple humility perhaps could have changed everything.  A simple apology or request for mercy could have been the difference between feasting, drinking, laughing  and wailing and grinding of teeth.

A few words from the Pope
"God has made himself visible; in Jesus we are able to see the Father...he encounters us anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist.  In the church's liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence, and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives..."