Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Matthew 22: 1-14
August 21, 2025 | Thursday

Today’s Gospel

Jesus continued speaking to them in parables: “This story throws light on the kingdom of heaven: A king gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to call the invited guests to the banquet, but the guests refused to come.

Again, he sent other servants, instructing them to say to the invited guests, ‘I have prepared a banquet, slaughtered my fattened calves and other animals, and now, everything is ready. Come to the wedding!’ But they paid no attention and went away, some to their farms, and some to their work. Others seized the servants of the king, insulted them and killed them. The king was furious. He sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is prepared, but the invited guests were not worthy. Go instead to the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast.’

The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, good and bad alike, so that the hall was filled with guests. The king came in to see the wedding guests, and he noticed a man not wearing a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in without the wedding clothes?’ But the man remained silent. So the king said to his servants, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Today’s Reflection

It is a tragic story reminiscent of the story of Agamemnon in Homer’s Iliad. Jephthah’s story was indirectly also told as he promises to the Lord. At the same time, in the Iliad’s parallelism, the promise was not for the child’s sacrifice but for something else. It was accidental that the child or daughter was the recipient and subject to the fulfillment of the vow. Is this a critique of a child sacrifice, which was even present in the time of Abraham but was forbidden by God? Is it that even in the time of the Judges, the child sacrifice continues to influence the people of Israel? The message is somewhat ambiguous for that moment and even for us today. What we could surmise is that once we give a vow to the Lord, we need to fulfill that vow. Victory in battle is not given by the appeasement of and help of the gods who were offered sacrifices but by God alone.

The analogy of the kingdom of heaven as a wedding feast is appropriately described here in the Gospel of today. It is a time of excitement, joy in preparation, and anticipation, and once completed, it is of satisfaction for the couple and the family. That is why the coming of the Messiah is even described or compared to a wedding feast. In any culture, a wedding celebration is always something to look for its joy and grandness. But here, the opposite happened; the joy of preparation was mired because the originally invited refused to come; instead, they had given many reasons not to attend the wedding. And more than that, maltreated the messengers of that wedding joy! The other point is the man who was not properly dressed attended the wedding, that is, without the wedding garment. The parable is a story about the preferences of the Lord to those who accepted the message. It was not seniority that is taken into consideration here, but it was the preparation and embrace of the message of the good news and clinging to it. For the wedding, the garment is often interpreted as a person’s different religious and virtuous ornaments. The good works, charitable acts, and intentions of your hearts are the greatest wedding garments you could have. Thus, it was fittingly portrayed that the relationship of husband and wife is that of Christ and His Church. For us, especially Christians, this is a stark reminder and a warning at the same time of the dignity of that relationship and the essential ornaments that are needed to partake in the wedding banquet of heaven.

/Vulnerasti, 2025