OK, let’s say that I get invited to a wedding . . . one of which I am not presiding. Well besides a nice gift (and money is always the best gift) I clear my calendar and pick out what to wear for the event. [Show my Armani suit, dress shoes]. For most weddings, there is an expectation that we wear our nice clothes. I suppose that I could wear these [Show old blue jeans, t-shirt and running shoes] but generally we want to look nice and others expect us to look nice.
But let’s say that the message from the gospel reading is not really about the clothes, but is about what the clothes symbolize.
Now think about a wedding, usually the bride and groom hear lots of compliments, well wishes, cheer and positive things. One way of think about the man from the gospel who had the wrong clothes . . . is that we had the wrong attitude. Maybe it wasn’t so much the clothes the he was wearing but the attitude that he was wearing. For example, maybe he came through the reception line and said to the bride and groom, “Good luck, but you are probably going to get divorced. Many couple do, you know.” Heck, I’d throw him out also.
I remember a prof of mine from college (and remember that I was a music major). So there would be many student recitals that we all were expected to attend. Afterwards there was usually a receiving line for the performer(s). Anyway, this one prof always felt it was his duty to point out the flaws of the performance. He would say things like, “Well you were slightly flat on the second piece.” He never gave a compliment or congratulations. And maybe he was correct, but gee, the receiving line is not the place for that. It is the place for joy.
A parishioner recently told me that her Mom always favored one of her siblings. A brother. This parishioner finally asked her Mom, why she favored “so and so.” “Well, he doesn’t complain.”
Maybe when Jesus is trying to teach the elders and chief priests in this parable, the wedding feast not only represents the “end of time” and is the kingdom of heaven . . . but the wedding feast is life. And we are invited to show up for this life . . . with a “better dressed attitude.”
Like attending a wedding, we are to come to our lives joyfully . . . not complaining, not stating “gloom and doom” . . .but come with hearts full of joy.
St. Augustine said, “Joy is the evidence of God.”
Another source says, “Joy is different than happiness. Happiness is the feeling we get when things go our way. It is more about getting what we want. Joy is a peak sense of aliveness no matter what is going on. Happiness is fragile. Joy is not fragile at all.”
Pope Francis is all about joy, in fact he wrote an entire Apostolic Letter on it. He called it the “Gospel of Joy.” I have used many quotes from this work. About a month ago, Pope Francis wrote a tweet, “Mary, give us the grace of being joyful as we walk in the freedom of the children of God.” This is the month of the rosary that we are praying before each weekend Mass and encouraging you to pray it during this month.
Mary’s whole life could be seen as wearing the garments of “woe-is-me.” She would have had lots of reasons to complain. For example saying, “I’m pregnant. I am not married. People are going to probably kill me for this.” But she gives us the example to choose joy and not despair.
You see joy is not something we choose just once and then all of life is OK. It’s a daily decision. It is making the best of whatever is put before us. It is putting in the hard work not to let a difficulty or obstacle stand in our way.
It’s like this . . . which would you choose: either to receive $2.5 million right now receive a penny right now that would double itself every day for a month. Which one would you like? Well, first you may want to ask which month it is. For if it’s February with only 28 days, the doubling penny is $1,342,177.28. But if you have a month with 31 days that penny is worth $10,737,418.24. Amazing what those last few days do for us, eh?
Well the invitation to become joyful is not to expect one big event to give us joy. It rarely does; instead think of something each day to be grateful about . . for joy comes with the slow but steady day-by-day improvements and, OVER THE LONG RUN, you’ll be way ahead.
We can always put on our grab garments of complaining [hold up the jeans, etc] but we have this invitation to come to a great wedding feast of joy. And we are invited to dress up for it, each day we can put on our garments, like Mary did, and put our trust in God. We may not know what is at the end of the banquet.
Pope Francis wrote in his Gospel of Joy, “Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress:
Then Francis quotes Lamentation, “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is… But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness… It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam 3:17, 21-23, 26).