The first reading for mass from the book of Ezekiel, is so profoundly beautiful. God said:
“I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities … I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you … you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
This is exactly what happened to us, when we were baptized. Babies of course do not remember their baptism, but for those of us who entered the church as adults, we will never forget the experience. The entire RCIA process is a profoundly beautiful, healing, and formative experience. It is a process of allowing the Lord to enter into our hearts more deeply, and replacing the sins of the past, with God’s cleansing, life giving processes of baptism, confession, and communion with the Lord Jesus, in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The responsorial psalm (psalm 51) is also very beautiful:
“I will pour clean water on you and wash away all your sins …”
“A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.”
As you begin to read today’s gospel, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with baptism, or communion with the Lord Jesus, and with the unity of our brothers and sisters in Christ, but that is exactly what it is talking about. The Jewish people were the first to be invited to the wedding banquet in today’s parable, but they did not come, even after the king had prepared such a grand feast for his son. They were too busy or not interested, and some of them even mistreated and killed the king’s servants. This was just like the Jewish people treated the prophets, Jesus, and his Apostles too.
In today’s gospel though, Jesus said that the king sent his servants to invite whomever they found, both the good and the bad alike, to come to the wedding feast. Jesus invites everyone in the world today, with no exceptions, to dine with him at his table each week, when we celebrate Mass. What an honor and a privilege we have been given. We are just like the guests in this parable, in that we didn’t do anything to deserve this blessing, it is a sheer gift from God. Jesus’s life was a sheer gift from God, to all of us.
The reason the gospel has a lot to do with the first reading for Mass, and the responsorial psalm too though, is because of the wedding garment in this parable:
“But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?”
The gospel goes on to tell how the king had his hands and feet bound, and then cast him outside in the dark, and it indicates there was a lot of human suffering and misery going on out there.
Jesus is often referred to as the Bridegroom of the church. The wedding garment is our baptismal gown. Our baptism is how we enter the church, and are invited to dine at the Lord’s table. Wedding garments can be put on, or taken off though. The man who was kicked out of the king’s banquet didn’t have his wedding garment on, and the king greatly took offense at that, and had him cast outside into the darkness.
We do the same thing as this man, if we show up for Mass in a state of mortal sin. We might be able to fool everyone else around us, but we can’t fool the King. He knows the state of our soul, when we present ourselves at his table. It is a sacrilege, and offends the Lord deeply, if we have the audacity to receive him without being in a state of grace. It also jeopardizes our eternal salvation.
The way we ‘put on our wedding garment’ and arrive for Mass in a state of grace, is through the sacrament of confession. Any bride wants to be clean, fresh and pretty for her groom on their wedding day. It is the same with us, because we are the church, and the church is the bride of Christ. It is wonderful to receive the Lord and feel good about it, shortly after we have gone to confession.
If in doubt though, it is better to not receive Jesus, than to deeply offend him. At the earliest opportunity we should go to confession, as soon as we are aware of committing a serious sin. But in the interim, it is a sign of respect to abstain from receiving communion. The man without the wedding garment in today’s gospel lacked respect for the king.
It is also difficult to speak to family members and friends who have fallen away from the church and have not been to Mass in many years, but they still receive communion at weddings and funerals. If you try to talk to them about it, they may say that they don’t believe that it is a sin to receive communion, even if it has been many years since they have been to Mass or confession. We still need to mention it though, as respectfully as possible, for their own good. After all, we want to spend eternity in heaven with all of our family and friends, and there is no guarantee this will happen if someone doesn’t speak up about it, like the king did in today’s gospel. It would actually be a much gentler thing for them, a much greater kindness, if we were the one to speak to them about it, while they still have time to make the proper preparations to meet the King of heaven.
Daily Mass Readings:
Ezekiel 36: 23-28 / Psalm 51 / Matthew 22: 1-14
