And when the king came
in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. (Matt.
22:11)
What is meant, brethren,
by this wedding garment? It cannot signify either baptism or faith, because who
can enter this marriage feast without baptism or without faith? Because
undoubtedly the mere fact of not believing excludes one from the Church. So
what can we understand by this wedding garment but charity? We must suppose
then, that this man enters without a wedding garment who is a member of our
Holy Church by reason of his faith, but who lacks charity. It is so called with
good reason because our Maker wore it when He came as a bridegroom to unite
Himself to the Church. There was no other means than God's love by which the
Only-begotten could unite the souls of the elect with Himself. This is why John
tells us: God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son (John
3:16). He who came to men for love's sake, calls this love the wedding garment.
All of you, then, who are members of the Church and believe in God have indeed come
to the marriage, but you are without a wedding garment if you discard the cloak
of charity. If any of you is invited to an earthly wedding, he changes his
dress so that he may show the groom and bride his participation in their joy;
he would be ashamed to appear shabbily dressed among the guests and
merry-makers. We assist at God's marriage feast and nevertheless, we are loath
to undergo a change of heart. The angels rejoice when they see God's chosen
ones admitted into heaven. How do we visualize this spiritual banquet, those of
us who lack that festive garment which is the only one that gives us beauty in
God's sight?
We must remember that,
as a cloth is woven between two wooden frames, one above and the other below,
thus also charity is founded on two precepts: the love of God and the love of
our neighbor. For it is written: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy
whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and with thy whole
strength ... and thy neighbor as thyself (Mark 12:30). It is worth noting here
that a limit and measure is set to the love of our neighbor , as we read: Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The love of God, however, is marked by no
limit, as we are told: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and with thy whole strength. We
are not told, then, how much we must love, but the manner in which we must do
so: with everything we have. For only he truly loves God who does not think of himself.
It is necessary to observe these two precepts of charity if we desire to be
found wearing the wedding garment. This is what the prophet Ezekiel means when
he tells us that the front of the gate of the city built on a mountain measures
two cubits (Ezek. 40:9); for undoubtedly we cannot enter the heavenly city if
in this church, which is called the gate because it is outside that city, we
have no love for God or man. As we see also in the book of Exodus that it is
prescribed that the curtains destined for the tabernacle should be dyed twice
in scarlet coloring (Ex. 26:1). You, my brethren, you are the curtains of the tabernacle,
veiling by virtue of your faith the heavenly mysteries in your hearts. But the
curtains of the tabernacle must be twice dyed in scarlet. That is a color like
fire. And what is charity, if it is not fire? But this charity must be twice
dyed, that is, steeped in the love of God and in the love of our neighbor. The man
who loves God so that his contemplation leads him to forget his neighbor has
indeed the color of scarlet, but not twice dyed. Again, he who loves his
neighbor, but whose love leads him to forget God, has the color of scarlet but
with a single dye. In order that your charity may be steeped in both, you must
be inflamed with love of God and of your neighbor, so that compassion for your
fellow-man does not induce you to abandon contemplation of God, nor an
excessive desire for that contemplation make you cast aside all pity. So, every
man who lives among other men should seek God, the object of his longings, but
in such a fashion as not to abandon his neighbor; and he should help his neighbor
in such a way that it will never check his progress towards God to Whom he
speeds.
We know that the love
which we owe to our neighbor is sub-divided into two precepts, as we read in
Scripture: See thou never do to another what thou wouldst hate to have done to
thee by another (Tob. 4:16), and Christ tells us: As you would that men should
do to you, do you also to them (Matt. 7:12). If we act towards our neighbor as
we should like him to act towards us, and avoid doing to others what would be
displeasing to us ourselves, then we observe the law of charity. But no one
should think that he observes this law merely because he loves his neighbor; he
must examine first the motive behind his love. For he who loves others, but not
for God's sake, has not charity, even though he may think he has. True charity lies
in loving our friend with and in God, and our enemy for God's sake. He loves
for God's sake, who loves even those by whom he is not loved. Charity is
usually proved only by the opposing trial of hatred. So that our Lord says,
Love your enemies. Do good to them that hate you (Luke 6:27). The man who loves
his avowed enemies is following this command. Great and sublime are these
precepts and often hard to obey; nevertheless they constitute the wedding garment.
And that man who is without it has good grounds to fear that the king, at his
coming, will cast him out. For we are told: The king went in to see the guests;
and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. It is we, brethren,
who attend the marriage of the Word: who believe in the Church, are nourished
by the Scriptures, and rejoice in the union of God with the Church. I would
have you consider very carefully whether you attend the feast in the wedding
garment. Weigh your actions in your heart one by one: whether you foster hatred
of anyone, whether you envy the good fortune of others or through malice seek
to injure them.
See the king entering
the feast, see how he scrutinizes the disposition of our heart. To that man
whom he finds stripped of charity, he says in rapid anger: "Friend, how
camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment?" It is striking,
dearly beloved, that he calls this man "friend" at the same time as
he reproves him, as if his real meaning were: Friend and no friend; friend by
faith and no friend by his actions. But he was silent, since - with what pain
we must say it - in that final judgment no word of excuse can help us, for he
who accuses us outwardly is also he who accuses the soul's interior depths, who
is a witness of our conscience. And yet we cannot forget that, if anyone has
this garment of virtue, although not perfectly woven, he should not despair of
obtaining the forgiveness of this merciful king when he comes, since he himself
gives us this hope when he says through the Psalmist, Thine eyes did see my
imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written (Ps. 138:16). We have
said these words for the consolation of those who have charity, although weak.
We must speak now of those who lack it altogether. The Gospel continues:
Then the king said to
the waiters: Bind him hand and foot ...
and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. That rigorous sentence will bind the hands and feet of those who do not
restrain themselves now from wicked actions by amending their life. In other
words, suffering will bind hereafter those whom guilt binds here. The feet
which refuse to visit the sick, the hands which refuse to help the needy, are
now voluntarily unbound to any good works. Therefore the willing slave of vice here
upon earth will hereafter be the unwilling prisoner of endless torments. It is
apt to say that he is cast into the outer darkness. Interior darkness is the
blindness of the heart, while the outer darkness belongs to the everlasting
night of damnation. That man is damned, then, who is banished into outer, not
interior, darkness for he is expelled against his will into the night of
condemnation who, in this life, fell willingly into blindness of heart. It is
said that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; the teeth of those who
satiated themselves in their intemperance on earth will be set on edge in hell;
their eyes will weep because in life they satisfied them with the sight of
unlawful things In this way, each member will suffer a particular torment as
here it was used for the satisfaction of a particular vice.
But now that one man has
been expelled, one who represents all the various types of evil, a general
warning to all is given: Many are called, but few are chosen. This is indeed a
terrible sentence, my dear brethren. Consider that all of us have been called,
by faith, to the marriage of the Heavenly King. We all believe and confess the
mystery of His Incarnation, sharing in the banquet of the divine Word. But at a
future date the King of Judgment is to come. We know that we have been called;
we do not know whether we have been chosen. It is all the more necessary,
therefore, that we abase ourselves with humility, since we have not this
certainty. There are some who never tried to do good; there are others who,
although they began once, failed to persevere.We see one man pass nearly all
his life in wickedness, but as he nears its end he returns to God by repentance
and true penance. Another may seem to live the life of a saint, but end his
days by falling into error and malice. One begins well and ends better; another
plunges into evil from an early age and goes from bad to worse throughout his
days. Each man, then, must live in fear, for he does not know what is to come, since
we must never forget, but rather often repeat and meditate on the words: Many
are called but few are chosen.
An excerpt from Parables of the Gospel by
Saint Gregory the Great
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