A Match Made in Heaven
Preacher: Mgr Jeremy Milne, Vicar-General, Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh
Readings: Isaiah 25:1-9 and Matthew 22:1-14
“And they all lived happily ever after.” How satisfying those words are to us, especially as a child hearing them at the end of a fairy-tale or story in which the heroes have bravely faced adversity, overcome all obstacles and reached the goal of their quest.
Whether its hobbits merrily dancing in the Shire after the power of Sauron has finally been defeated, or tales in which wolves and witches that threaten to destroy what is good get their come-uppance in the end and darkness turns to light, winter to summer, or the countless romances in which the course of true love does not run at all smooth until, against all odds it triumphs and the happy couple are wed – we love a happy ending, maybe because real happiness is often elusive in this life.
For many, the last image of couples seeking each other, finding each other and getting safely over the line together is most satisfying. That’s because it speaks so enduringly to the human heart which seeks the love of another that will make it whole and that speaks to all of us who seek our ultimate completion and fulfilment in the Supreme Other, God.
I guess it’s also because we all love a wedding. They are such beautiful, joyful affirmations of the power of human love to unite people in a world where so much division and strife are present.
The Bible abounds with images of weddings and human marriage generally is a recurring image used to describe the relationship between God and Man.
The invitation of God to his people Israel and then of Jesus to his Church, is an invitation to be one in communion with the divine life for a happy ever after. The arc of the biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation describes the creation of humanity for intimate communion with God, the prideful rejection of this by human beings, the wooing of the human race through the people of Israel and ultimately of all people through Christ, towards the final, joyful consummation of God’s love for humanity – prefigured in the image of the Messianic Feast in the passage from Isaiah in the first reading and finally visioned as the great wedding supper of the Lamb at the end of time in Revelation.
Jesus combines these images to devastating effect in the parable of the marriage feast that we’ve just heard, in which, in a few brief vivid strokes, Jesus describes the whole sweep of salvation history.
All things are planned by God from the beginning to be united with him in eternal union through Jesus Christ. So, in the parable, God the king has prepared a wedding feast for Jesus his son. The first servants sent to call those who have already been invited to the wedding feast may be seen as the OT prophets who were sent to the People of Israel to call them to the party. The next servants are the apostles who call the Jewish people of the day to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, the one who calls them to communion. Both sets of servants are ignored or mistreated and so the call turns to the main roads to invite everyone to enter the wedding hall and in this we see the early Church’s turn to the Gentiles as they cast their nets widely in fulfilment of their new vocation as fishers of men. Like wheat and weeds sown together in the field, like the good catch and bad catch brought up in the dragnet, everyone in the streets is invited, good and bad alike.
All are invited to enter the wedding hall but then comes the unsettling image of the one not wearing a wedding garment being cast into the outer darkness.
Inevitably we are drawn to ponder the nature of the wedding garment. We might have been feeling quite secure up to this point hearing that everyone is invited to the party. Great, it doesn’t matter who I am, high-born or low-born, rich or poor, strong or weak, I get to go to the party!
But now, it seems I need to be wearing the right clothes. What are they? Where do I get them? What do they cost?
Our mind wanders to imagining all kinds of elegant clothing that would be appropriate for a wedding. We all know how important, disproportionately so I would say, it has become for a couple to spend lavishly on the outward appearance of their wedding. Magnificent dresses, suits, flowers, cars, reception.
Lovely as it all is to us, none of that is important to God who is not impressed by appearances. What’s really important to God is the interior disposition of the bride and groom in saying ‘I do’ to the promises of life-long, faithful and fruitful commitment and the quality of their love for each other and the desire to enfold their love within the blessing of God and to share in the divine love that will sustain them in times when their own well may have seemed to run dry.
The Scriptures show us and often tell us that God does not judge by appearances. He is truly unconcerned about the quality of our threads. What he is concerned about is the quality of our love.
There was an article recently about a couple getting married who asked that all their guests come in clothes bought from charity shops and they did the same themselves, the bride clothed in a white dress that cost £2. All this was in keeping with the couple’s commitment to environmentally sustainable living.
It wasn’t a church wedding and I don’t think the couple were Christians, their first commitment being to Mother Earth rather than Father God, but I think they were unwittingly demonstrating something about the wedding garments that God wants to see us in when we arrive at the wedding feast. The garments are a sign of the interior disposition of the people, in that couple’s case a commitment to do environmental good – which of course is a good, so good on them.
So, what is the wedding garment of the parable? It’s a symbol of the quality of our love as we have lived it. In the vision of the wedding supper of the Lamb in Revelation, the garments worn by the Bride of Christ, the Church, are identified as the “righteous deeds of the saints”. So, we would be right in thinking that when we meet God he will be looking for evidence of a life well lived in love of God and love of others and the garment may be seen as representing deeds of kindness and generosity.
But, poor sinners that we are, we might tremble at the thought of mustering enough evidence in defence of such a life well lived in the eyes of God.
But, in Christ, our trembling meets with mercy.
In the early Christian baptismal practice all the catechumens were stripped of their old clothing and as they came up out of the waters of rebirth, the newly baptised were clothed in the same plain white garments, kings and paupers alike, before joining the assembly of brothers and sisters in the hall of the church.
Still today with infants we symbolise the new life of Christ through baptism by clothing them with a white garment of some kind, often a Christening gown or a white shawl. In the Catholic Rite we say of the child to the assembled family and friends, “You have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.”
As well as righteous deeds of kindness and generosity, I think the wedding garment may also be regarded as our dignity in Christ, our cherished identity as sons and daughters of our loving Father God, conferred at baptism and sustained in faith.
How much does the garment cost and where do we get it? It costs nothing because Jesus has paid the price with his blood and we receive it as a gift through faith at baptism.
Using Saint Paul’s memorable phrase, by ‘putting on Christ’ in this life we may be sure that we will be recognised as belonging at the wedding feast of the Lamb and living happily ever after.