I have to admit, I never quite understood why the King in today's Gospel reading was so mad. Dont' get me wrong, I understood the point of the story, and the parallels to the Jews and Gentiles.
But the way I saw it, the King dragged these poor people off the street. How could he possibly expect them to have appropriate wedding attire? Wasn't he overreacting just a bit?
However, today I learned that in those days, it was customary for the King to provide wedding garments for his guests.
And that is why he was so insulted.
He invited them to a lavish party that they never deserved to be invited to, offered them entertainment they could get nowhere else, and unlimited food and wine to fill themselves with.
All they had to do was put on the clothes he gave them.
Instead, one gentleman felt like his own, unclean clothes were appropriate. And he was immediately deemed 'persona non grata'.
The parallels to God and His guests today are obvious, and since others will do a better job of writing about such things, I won't belabor them here.
But I do now realize I can no longer walk around in my own Charlie Brown Halloween costume and keep calling myself Holy*.
God Bless you.
*Ok, ok, I'll leave the jokes to Victor from now on.
6 comments:
Michael, I did not realise that the king provided the clothes.
I that case it was right to tie up that man and throw him in the street where he will cry and grind his teeth. And if he had no teeth, no doubt dentures will be provided for him to grind.
I'd rather grind coffee beans. The smell and taste is .... ahhhh ...
Anyway, back to business.
Why is it when people visit me for trick or treat at Halloween they take one look at me and run away scared?
God bless.
I never really understood that passage until now. It makes a lot of sense now that you added in the detail of the king providing the wedding clothes. Thanks for clarifying this :) I feel better.
He provides the white Garment of Grace at Baptism, and yet some Protestants think it is enough to get into the Wedding Feast (heaven) by just a "dedication". Rather like the unfortunate man in this passage who was thrown out. Gnashing his teeth. The cool thing is, we had a Baptism at Mass this morning.
:) Thanks for the joke! You can carry on with them as far as I'm concerned!
Michael,
I just found out yesterday that the Host provided the clothes for the wedding feast. This sheds a whole new light on this Gospel reading!
Keep joking :)
Yes the host providing the wedding garment does give the parable a whole new perspective~for them and for us.
I like the Charlie Brown ghost costume at the end too :)
Thanks for another thought provoking post Michael.
PS- Michael, I sent you an e-mail regarding the Community blog. I am afraid the first 2 I sent probably went to your spam box.
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