28th Sunday Year A - Homily 1

Homily 1 - 2005 

To the Jewish mind, to speak of wedding-feast was to think of “good-time”.  The image was often used in the Scriptures to indicate the good time God was bursting to share with us.  More often than not, it meant “already in this life”; sometimes it was also stretched to mean “life after death”.

In today’s story, Matthew adds a caveat.  You need your wedding garment.  You need to be ready to “rise to the occasion”.  Sometimes the question confronts me when preaching at funerals.  No doubts about God’s intentions.  But what about the wedding garment?  How do we rise to the occasion when presented with the possibility of heaven, of eternal life?  Surely it shouldn’t be hard to love God: infinite beauty, mercy, truth, etc?

Or is there more to it?  I think there is: Loving God is not a matter simply of saying “How nice!” (like I might about an ice-cream, or a chocolate).  No real love is just that.  Love is relationship.  To love is to step into a dance routine, to be caught up in the dance, to let oneself be loved and to love.  To love God is to step into the tumultuous flow of God’s infinite loving, to say “yes”, to let myself be swept along in the irresistible surge of all that is encompassed in God’s loving as it translates itself into practice in: justice, mercy, forgiveness, patience and truth.  That’s scary; that’s stepping well outside the comfort Zone; that means death to all self-centredness, caution, common sense – but it is the only way to take part in and to enjoy the wedding feast.

The wedding garment – dressed for the occasion.  The only way to get ready is to start now: to surrender to the passion for justice, compassion, forgiveness, truth, etc. that express the mystery of the practical love of God.  Despite the hesitation, as St Paul wrote encouragingly in today’s reading, I can do all things in him who strengthens me.  And the wonderful things is that the party already begins the moment that I take that first step.  Dancing lessons start now: today!