I have heard over the years that when it is nearing time for a wedding, folks fast and try to lose some weight. This is a routine we all do so we will fit our fatter-selves into our wedding garments, less carbs, more fruit, more exercise! Even scientist have developed a fabric to help us with this problem called Lycra or Spandex. We find this fabric woven in to a lot of our clothing these days to allow for weight fluctuation or fat redistribution!
In the parable this morning, the king was angry first in that the chosen people did not come. This wedding was not a priority for them; they obviously were not truly his friends. The king then invited more people, anybody! Folks did come but one man came wearing his filthy Wal-Mart spandex shopping attire instead of a festive wedding garment, he probably had not even bathed! He did not make an effort to prepare himself for this wedding and banquet. The king cast this man out into the outer darkness. [Mt. 22:13] Saint Gregory the Great comments: “It is correctly said that this man is to be cast forth into the darkness, the outer one. We call blindness of heart inner darkness, and the everlasting night of condemnation outer darkness. The condemned are cast into outer, not inner, darkness, because one who fell willingly into blindness of heart in this life will be cast forth unwillingly into the night of condemnation in the next.” [Ib., 350, 351.]
We heard: “The kingdom of the heavens hath been likened to a man, a king, who made wedding festivities for his son. [Mt. 22:2] A great banquet has been prepared for you today by your great King, have you prepared? We hear from Saint Chrysostom: “Great is the punishment for those who have been idle, indifferent, and lazy. For even as those who showed insolence and gave injury by not coming, so also dost thou by thus reclining with a life corrupted. For the meaning of filthy garments is this: to depart hence having an unclean life.” [Ib., P.G. 58:681, 682 (cols. 650, 651).]
Many folks today tell me they are Orthodox but they do not come to the wedding banquet, they always have more important plans! Maybe these folks are more of a friend of the world than they are a true friend of our beckoning King? And when you are consumed with the world you are deathly bloated and in need of Spandex! Where is there any room left for God? Shower off your earthly dirt in confession and repentance, prepare your heart by reading the pre-communion prayers, prepare your soul by fasting, and cloth yourself in a garment fitting for a great banquet with our King, and most of all, come! You have been invited and He is expecting you to be here!
