What kind of a feast is this? Is 25:6-10; Ps 23:1-4; 5, 6; Phil 4:12-14, 19-20; Mt 22:1-14 Each of the readings for this Sunday are striking, but finding a unifying current running through all of them is a challenge. Obviously, the motif of a banquet binds Jesus’ parable of the royal wedding feast from Matthew’s Gospel with the lush banquet described in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah. However, the mood of the two readings is quite different. The beautiful reading from Isaiah describes the final destiny of God’s people as a bountiful feast catered by God on Mount Zion: a banquet provided “for all peoples” a “feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” This is a celebration of life in abundance — God will destroy “the veil that veils all peoples” and “God will destroy death forever!” With great tenderness, “the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face.” The final day of human destiny is a day of rejoicing and praise: “On that day it will be said: ‘Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!’” No wonder this biblical text, with its spirit of hope and trust in God’s love, is read at so many Christian funerals. In fact, the responsorial Psalm 23 breathes the same spirit using a different metaphor: “I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” — a verse from one of the best known and loved psalms: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose; beside restful waters he leads me; he refreshes my soul. … Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.” Jesus’ parable of the king who held a wedding feast for his son and sends out servants with personal invitations has a different mood. Remarkably, the invited guests turn down the king’s hospitality, ignoring the invitation and offering feeble excuses — my farm or my business needs attention. Much worse is that these wretched invitees mistreat the king’s messengers and even kill them. Naturally, the king does not receive this news well and destroys the murderers and burns down their city. Typical of many of Jesus’ parables, there is an eye-widening exaggeration here that gets your attention. Undaunted, the king orders his servants to go out to the main streets to invite “whomever you find.” They did, and “gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.” This seems to be a happy ending, barely masking its description of Jesus’ own mission — those who reject him miss the opportunity of a lifetime, but the poor and the vulnerable share in the wedding feast. However, this happy ending is not the way Jesus concludes his parable (Note: the editors of the Lectionary offer the alternative of ending the story this way, getting homilists off the hook if they wish). In Jesus’ version, the king comes in to meet his motley collection of guests and discovers one “who was not dressed in a wedding garment.” When asked why not, the man falls silent. Accordingly, he is thrown out into the “darkness.” What is the point here? Was this man expected to rent a tuxedo on his way to this unanticipated feast? Many interpreters see the “putting on a wedding garment” as symbolic of the change of life expected of all followers of Jesus. To take part in the feast, one has to leave one’s old life behind and follow Jesus. No exceptions. There is no “cheap grace,” the martyred German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared. Perhaps that is the message of the Scriptures this Sunday. God’s mercy is endless and bountiful but in the face of such love we are asked to let it change our lives. We, too, are to strive for a life of justice, of tender love for others, of fidelity to our commitments, of hope. We, too, must wear a wedding garment in the joy of God’s kingdom.
About the Author Donald Senior was president emeritus, chancellor and professor of New Testament studies at Catholic Theological Union, 5401 S. Cornell Ave., until his death on Nov. 8, 2022.