The Parable of The Wedding Feast

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“Jesus began to speak to them in parables once again: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son's wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.

‘Next he sent some more servants with the words, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, my banquet is all prepared, my oxen and fattened calf have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.”

‘But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them, and killed them. The king was furious. He dispatched his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burnt their town’” (Matt. 22:1-7).

In many of Our Lord's parables, we find an instant and insistent invitation to each one of us, each according to our own circumstances.

It's a calling, a calling to the wedding feast, a calling to use the specific opportunities that He gives to us to be holy. At times that can mean the heroic exercise of virtue.

I was told a story recently from a book called The Righteous about a priest who gave up his life to save a Jewish girl, when 2,000 Jews were murdered in a ghetto in Rembertow in Poland in August 1942.

Yehudis or Judith Pshenitse was twelve years old. After the war she recalled how she was helped to survive.

She said, “I went to see the priest. He had known me as a small child, when I used to go into the church with our Christian maid. I wept and begged the priest to save me. I told him what had happened to my parents.

“He calmed me and promised me that he would give me as much help as he could. He hid me in a cellar. Every day I went to church with him, and I became one of the best singers in the church choir.

“After a time he gave me false papers, with my name listed as Kristina Pavlovnia. I began to feel like a genuine, born Christian.

“However, that did not last long. One day, when I was walking to the church, a Christian stopped me on the street and said, ‘What are you doing here?’” Even among the Christians, there was a deep hatred for the Jews.

“I ran away in terror. When I told the priest, he calmed me, telling me to go back into the cellar and be as quiet as possible.

“That same day two Nazi soldiers went to see the priest, demanding that he surrender the Jewish girl whom he had hidden. He denied that there was anyone in his house. They threatened to shoot him, but he continued to insist that he was hiding no one.

“The Nazis tortured him in various ways, but he continued to refuse to give me up until he fell to the ground covered with blood. His body was pierced in several places, and his face was unrecognizable. Then the Nazis left him as he was and went away.

“Before he died, the priest asked his housekeeper to take me out of my hiding place and bring me to him, because he wanted to bless me.”

Her memory of this moment was terrifying. “All I saw,” she said, “was a pool of blood and the priest's body, torn into pieces. I fainted. When I came to, he raised his crushed and broken hand and caressed me.

“Finally he told his housekeeper to give me over to trustworthy people, to behave towards me like a mother, so that no one would suspect I was Jewish. Thus, leaning against him, I felt his body grow cold.

“Once again, he asked that I be hidden in a safe place, and then he died. I can't remember the priest's name. He was a parish priest in Nowy Dwór.

“The housekeeper led me away from the priest and cleansed me of his blood. She changed my clothes, and at five in the morning, she led me to Modlin. She left me there and disappeared.”

After that, living by her own wits, posing as a Christian child, Yehudis Pshenitse survived the war (Martin Gilbert, The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust).

Our Lord calls each one of us in the ordinary circumstances of each day. Sometimes they might not be so ordinary. He gives us the grace also to respond with heroic generosity when necessary.

In this parable, we hear about the wedding feast organized by a king for his son. He sends out his servants to call those who had been invited (Matt. 22:1-14).

The image of the banquet was quite familiar to Jewish people. The prophets had foretold that with the coming of the Messiah, Yahweh would prepare a wondrous feast for all the nations: He would get ready “a feast of fat things,” we're told in Isaiah, “a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined” (Isa. 25:6).

The banquet signifies the plenitude of goodness that flows from the Incarnation and the Redemption and also, the priceless gift of the Blessed Eucharist.

In this parable, Our Lord illustrates how we often respond coldly and indifferently to God's generosity. He sent his servants to call the guests, but they did not want to come.

When we consider the story of this heroic response of this priest to this situation that arose in his parish—total injustice—we see the heroism with which he responded. God gives us the opportunity every day of our life to respond to His calls.

In Our Lord's telling of this parable, there's a certain note of sadness, foreseeing as He does the many excuses that will be made to Him over the centuries: all the times when people have not responded to His call in the ordinary circumstances of their life, and also in the extraordinary circumstances that may arise.

The carefully prepared food stays on the table and the room remains empty, because Jesus does not compel anyone to come.

We are told, “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the main crossroads and invite everyone you could find to come to the wedding.’ These servants went out onto the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“When the king came in to look at the guests, he noticed a man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him: ‘How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?’ And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’ For many are invited, but not all are chosen.”

The king sends his servants out once more, to tell those who were invited, “Tell them everything is ready, my oxen, my fat cows have been killed, come to the marriage feast.” But the guests don't pay the slightest attention: one goes off to his farm, another to whatever else is his business.

In our own efforts, in our own personal apostolate, we may find that the excuses that people give for not coming to the wedding, not responding to the call, have not changed too much over the centuries.

Others not only reject the invitation, but they revolt against the king. We're told, “The rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them” (Matt. 22:6). They react violently to the invitation of love.

Our Lord's calls are all a call to a deeper divine intimacy, to come closer to Him, to a greater level of commitment and confidence.

Every day He invites us to the table that He has prepared. He invites us and He also gives Himself to us as food.

The great banquet is a symbol of Holy Communion. That Communion, that food, is the food we need for our sustenance. “He is the remedy for our daily needs” (St. Ambrose, On the Sacred Mysteries of the Altar).

The heroic virtue that that priest was able to practice on that occasion—of fortitude, of perseverance, of fidelity, of justice, of love—was a fruit of the spiritual food that he'd been receiving in his life. Without that food, our soul would weaken and die.

Jesus awaits us every day, hidden under the appearances of bread, so that we can go and receive Him full of love and gratitude.

“The wedding is ready,” He tells us; but many are absent, because they don't appreciate the most wonderful marvel of the Blessed Eucharist.

We could ask Our Lord in our prayer to help us to savor this great gift, this treasure, this Bread of Life, that we might never get accustomed to receiving Him in Holy Communion, that we might look forward to our Mass every day, to our fervent Communions and our thanksgiving, because love comes to call us with new generosity each day.

The people in this parable respond to Our Lord's invitation with a variety of silly excuses because they don't appreciate what love there is in every Communion.

St. John Chrysostom in one of his homilies says, “Consider the great honor done to you, and the table of which you partake. He whom the angels tremble to behold, unable to look upon him face to face because of the brightness he radiates, is the one with whom we feed ourselves, mingling with him and becoming one body and flesh with Christ” (John Chrysostom, Homilies on St. Matthew’s Gospel).

Many will absent themselves, so He expects us to be present. Hopefully, we make up with our presence. We atone with the witness of our presence for those who have not responded to His call. He desires, with an intensity that we can scarcely imagine, that we receive Him with great love and joy.

We have to work at our Mass. We have to work at our Communions. We have to look for prayers that reach our heart and mind and soul, the words of the saints, or the prayers the Church traditionally recommends for preparation for Holy Communion and for thanksgiving afterwards, so that little by little, day by day, we can grow.

But He sends us out to call others. He says, “Go there to the thoroughfares and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (Matt. 22:9).

He expects many, and sends us out to do a loving, patient, and effective apostolate, and to teach our many friends and acquaintances what an uncontainable joy it is to find Christ. Lord, help us to savor the treasure.

Fulton Sheen tells a story of a visit he made here to Africa. He noticed a lady who was present at the Mass and she had no legs. He asked her, how does she come here and where did she live?

She lived five kilometers away. How did she come? “I dragged myself.”

He said to her, “Tomorrow, I will bring you Holy Communion. I will go there to where you live.”

The following day at the Mass, he found her there again. He was so impressed with the effort that that lady who had no legs was making to receive her Lord.

When we hear or see this type of example—that can help us to appreciate the gifts that God has given to us and teach us how we have to try and appreciate those great graces and gifts He has given.

We're told by St. John Chrysostom, “Remember where you were called: at a crossroads. And what were you like then? Limp and lame of soul, which is much worse than any physical deformity” (ibid.).

We could try to prepare well for Holy Communion, avoiding routine, trying not to come into Our Lord's presence thoughtlessly and carelessly.

We're told, “When the king came to look at the guests, he saw a man there who had no wedding garment. He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’” (Matt. 22:11-12).

Each day we're invited to approach the Eucharistic banquet, which He has prepared for us with such great care. We're also aware in ourselves of habits, attitudes, errors, aspects of our character which perhaps don't correspond with the great honor that is being done to us by Jesus Christ.

We ought to try and examine ourselves so that we don't appear before Our Lord in what amounts to rags, as we have a tendency to disguise our defects and justify our behavior.

We have to prepare our soul. There is no better way to prepare our soul to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion than frequent reception of the Sacrament of Penance.

We're told in Christ Is Passing By, “On this earth, when we receive an important person, we bring out the lights, music, formal dress. How should we prepare to receive Christ into our soul? Have we ever thought how we would behave if we could only receive him once in a lifetime?” (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 91).

If that was the case, perhaps we wouldn't sleep the night before. We would have thought out well what we would say, what we would ask, and how we would ask it; everything we could do wouldn't be enough. That's how we should try and receive Our Lord each day.

One man invited to the wedding certainly heard the invitation and he went to the wedding cheerfully enough, but he was inappropriately dressed and didn't give due consideration to what was required of him.

We can't just receive Our Lord any old way: distracted, inattentive, not fully realizing what we are about.

The Church tells us that we always receive graces when we receive Our Lord in Holy Communion, but the greater our dispositions, the greater the graces we will receive.

The Council of Trent says that to receive Holy Communion worthily, we should above all be in a state of grace. Our Mother the Church teaches us and warns us that no one who has a mortal sin on his conscience should dare receive the Holy Eucharist without making a sacramental Confession, regardless of how contrite he may think he is.

As well as that, such a great gift requires us to get ourselves ready in body and soul as best we can—by frequent Confession, even though we may not have any mortal sins; by intensifying our desire for purification, and increasing our acts of faith, love, and humility at the moment of receiving Our Lord.

Pope St. John Paul II says: “Love is repaid with love. ... In the first place it will be love for Christ himself. A Eucharistic encounter is, in fact, a loving encounter” (John Paul II, Address, Oct. 31, 1982).

Frequent Communion should never mean lukewarm Communion. Fighting lukewarmness means preparing and doing what we can to ensure that Our Lord does not find us distracted when He comes into our hearts.

At the same time, Our Lord tells us, “Unless you become like little children…” (Matt. 18:3) Little children easily get distracted, but often if something important is happening, they bring their full attention back to what's taking place—they’re receiving some special present or greeting somebody important.

It would betoken a great lack of refinement to approach Communion with our mind on other matters. Lukewarmness is nothing but a lack of love, and is typified by not receiving Communion in the right frame of mind.

We know that we can never manage to receive Our Lord as worthily as He deserves, because our grasp of what is involved is limited. But Our Lord expects us to make whatever effort we can.

St. Gregory the Great says, “If any important or high-ranking person, or even one who is just wealthy or powerful, were to tell us he was to come to our house, we would have everything gleaming, hiding away anything the visitor or our friend would find unsightly.

“He who has perpetrated evil acts, he says, let him first cleanse the dirt and stains if he wants to prepare his soul as a fit dwelling” (Gregory the Great, Homily 30 on the Gospels).

We could think how Our Lord makes it so easy for us to receive Him. It can give us great joy to know that He wants us to receive Him.

We can ask Our Lord to take care of our preparation. We can always have a deeper desire for purification, and a greater faith and refinement in our dealings with Jesus present in this holy Sacrament.

When we read the things that some of the great saints have written about the Blessed Eucharist—how they've expressed their faith, how they've approached Holy Communion in such a fervent way—we can be inspired to grow in our faith and preparation.

Our effort to live in God's presence during the day, and the very fact of trying to perform our daily duties as best we can, can help us to receive Him with greater love.

The greater our love can help us to have an ever greater need to make atonement to Our Lord for our mistakes, our negligences, for all the times when we did get distracted, or we didn't receive Him as well as we might, or didn't appreciate the gift, or took it for granted.

We can also try to fill our day with Acts of Thanksgiving or Spiritual Communions, so that our heart is more and more firmly centered on Our Lord during our work, our family life, and in everything we do.

Pope St. John Paul II talked to Our Lord in very intimate ways. He said, “We come to you knowing that you are calling us and love us just as we are. ‘You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’ (John 6:68-69).

“Your Eucharistic presence began with the sacrifice of the Last Supper and continues as a communion and a gift of your entire self. Increase our faith...

“You are our hope, our peace, our Mediator, our brother and friend. Our heart is filled with joy and hope in knowing that you ‘always live to make intercession for us’ (Heb. 7:25). Our hope turns into confidence and Paschal joy, hastening us on our way to the Father in your company.

“We want to share your sentiments and to value the things you value, because you are the center, the beginning and end of everything. Sustained by this hope, we desire to implant this scale of Gospel values in the world where God and his gifts of salvation will hold pride of place in the hearts of men and in their attitudes of practical living.

“We want to love like you, who gives life and all you are. We would like to say with St. Paul: ‘For me, to live is Christ’ (Phil. 1:21).Our life is meaningless without you. We want to learn ‘to be with him whom we know loves us’ (St. Teresa of Ávila, The Book of Her Life), because ‘with such a good friend at your side, any suffering can be borne.’

“You have given us your Mother to be our own, to teach us how to meditate and adore in our hearts. She, in receiving the Word and putting it into practice, became the most perfect Mother” (John Paul II, Address, October 31, 1982).

At the end of his Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia–“The Church from the Eucharist”–Pope John Paul talked about how Our Lady must have received Holy Communion in the Masses of St. John after Our Lord had died, and how fervent her Communions must have been as she received the Body of Christ (John Paul II, Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, Point 56, April 17, 2003).

Mary, may you help me to take better care of my daily Communions, seeing each one of them as a gift. From that grace and strength that you give me, help me to respond to all the little calls that Our Lord gives me every day to come to the wedding feast.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

VA