Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 (Matthew 22:1-14)

“Many are called but few are chosen.”

The activating principle for salvation is choice. The real presence of salvation is divine love.

A popular image of heaven is the image of St. Peter standing the gate. He sits at a large leger book. It is a book of debits and credits the soul accumulated in life. When a soul seeks entrance into Heaven, St. Peter checks the book. Je adds the tally. If your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds he lets you in. If not, well- you are directed to an elevation that has only one button: down.

While this may be a popular image it is not Biblical. According to the Bible Heaven is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is in fact a magnificent marriage feast, a party, to which all are invited. The only one standing at the door is Jesus Himself. There is no leger book, just Jesus with his arms wide open, smiling and greeting all souls with a single word: Come!

The parable Jesus tells us about the Kingdom of Heaven works on two levels: the specific and the general.

The specific meaning of the parable is the call to Israel to be chosen for worship and service.

God initially issued this call through His servant Moses. The people heard the call and rejected the call. They distorted the call into a demand for privilege, power and pride.

Those who bring the invitation to the wedding feast are the prophets. They remind Israel that the call is to enter into a life transforming personal relationship with God through worship and compassion. Jesus cites the experience of the prophets to indicate how Israel by and large not only distorted the call they also rejected the invitation.  Jesus even gives an explanation  for the rejection: business. Business as usual.

Israel did not want the call or value the invitation. God offered infinite and eternal divine love and the people essentially said: very nice but show us the money. God offered the assurance of eternal life and the people said: well and good but give us the power to conquer the nations. God offered the people the invitation for Israel to help meet the needs of the poor, the sick the lonely and the homeless. The people demanded the right to possess the land and use other people for their own benefit.

The last group of servants in the parable are the apostles. When the chosen reject the invitation to the wedding feast, the King sends servants to offer the invitation to everyone in the world, the good and the bad. This is the image of grace. The call is a gift we can choose to receive through the waters of baptism and cultivate at the altar of sacrifice.

The man who does not wear a wedding garment presents a problem for modern readers. This is one of those rare instances in scripture where it is important to look at a good Bible dictionary and perhaps even read a scholarly commentary. In the ancient world and in many traditional societies, the King himself would provide his guests with a wedding garment at the door. It was a sign of the king’s generosity to give the garment and of the guests respect to receive and wear the garment. The garment is a symbol of divine grace. It reminds us what the apostle Paul preached: we are saved by grace through faith and not of works lest anyone should boast.

The man without the wedding garment rejected the gift at the door. The basis of his rejection is pride. The effect of his rejection is lack of respect. The result of his pride and arrogance, his lack of respect and of reverence, is his exclusion from the feast. He excludes himself by remaining apart from the celebration . The king acknowledges his choice and basically says: as you have chosen through pride to stand apart from the celebration you shall dwell apart from the celebration. This is the image of the lost souls.

The lost choose to reject God’s grace through pride. They stand apart. They assert their own will to do what they want when and how they want it. They are welcome to enter the door to the feast dressed in the wedding garment of divine love. Since they reject what God offers God acknowledges their choice but will not allow them into the feast. At the feast there is only joy grounded in humility and delight in the Beloved Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

As then so now. Israel’s experience is not unique. It is normative for all people everywhere.

The great challenge for the Plan of Salvation is also the great blessing. The challenge and the blessing are choice. Choice activates love and the Kingdom of Heaven is a personal relationship with the Triune God of love.

That is why salvation is not a bookkeeping function of debits and credits. The Kingdom of Heaven is a celebration of Divine love. On Earth, that celebration is the Mass. The Holy Spirit invites everyone to come to the font of blessing, the baptismal font, to receive the Wedding Garment of grace. He invites the good, the bad, the beautiful, the not so beautiful and indeed He invites all sorts and conditions of people.

Everyone is welcome. No one is excluded. We can exclude ourselves but God never excludes us. How is this possible? The history of Israel as recorded in the Bible and summarized for us by Jesus in the parable offers an explanation.

God offers eternal love through worship and people respond: that’s nice but show me the money. Give me the power.

The parable summarizes for us two basic attitudes that produce two very different actions that lead to two separate results.

One attitude is the posture of pride that demands: my will be done. I want the benefits I want according what I value. Give me that and I may come to the celebration. But I reserve the right to analyze, criticize and judge the people, the program the process. I reserve the right to exclude the unworthy. I reserve the right to hold back unless I get what  I want. The voice of pride is the voice of the lost who throughout this life issue a demand and formed their soul with the words: my will be done.

The other attitude is the posture of humility that rejoices in the personal relationship God offers us in Jesus Christ. This voice does not come from moral perfection or intellectual arrogance or even a narrow prideful cold orthodoxy. This is the voice of passionate friendship. It is the voice that says with the apostle Paul: no one is perfect most of all me. I am a work in process and so is everyone else. My primary value is the friendship Jesus offers me. I accept the garment of salvation as the free gift it is. I come to the altar of sacrifice to celebrate. I can relax in the transforming grace  of the Holy Spirit. I can trust my forever friend, Jesus, that he is working in all things to accomplish the Father’s Plan of salvation.

In the final judgment, all people will either stand before God and say: My will be done or Thy will be done.

To the first God will say: Amen. So be it. Your will be done. You have chosen separation from the infinite and eternal community of divine love. Heaven is a marriage feast of celebration and there are no shot gun weddings in heaven. You were called and you have chosen to reject the invitation.

To the second Jesus opens his arms wide and says: whoever you are, whatever you have done or left undone, Come.

You have been called and you have chosen to accept the invitation. You have chosen to receive the wedding garment of divine grace. Come to the feast and let us celebrate forever the great love of the one God who is an infinite and eternal community of love.