St. Paul says, “I know how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance.”  We are called to live in the spirit of Christ in every circumstance and in all things.  There’s a very important virtue of balance there that we should all strive to foster.  If we’re living in circumstances of prosperity and enjoying a relatively comfortable existence, and things are going pretty well for us (even amid the pandemic), we have to be on our guard, because it’s very easy then to forget about our need for God, and it’s easy to forget that life on this earth doesn’t last forever, and the only thing you get to take with you, is your soul.  We have to know how to be faithful when life is good.  We also have to know how to deal with those times and situations in life that aren’t ideal: when we are struggling to scrape a living together, when life isn’t comfortable, when we’re sick, when our family life is tense: we really have to focus in those times on God’s promises: on the assurance of his love, the pledge of future glory in heaven: and we are called in those difficult times to accept with humility the fact that many of the things we’ve gotten used to having, many of the things we think we need: we really don’t.  

The one thing we absolutely can not live without, is charity.  The Fathers of the Church understood today’s parable in the Gospel of St. Matthew as being principally about the importance of charity.  When the king came in to the feast to meet the wedding guests, he was disturbed to find one present there without the necessary wedding garment.  Christ our King, when he comes to the feast of his victory over sin and death, the feast of heaven, desires all of us to be there with him.  But he does ask something of us.  He asks us to clothe ourselves in the necessary garment, which is holiness: to clothe ourselves in charity.  Each one of us here today, by presenting ourselves before God to worship him, by sharing his life in baptism, by our belief and our prayer: we’ve already come to the wedding.  We’re at the feast.  The wedding feast of the Lamb has begun, and we stand at that great wedding feast every time we are present at Mass: because at Mass Christ makes present his saving mystery: this is the incredible experience that we are privileged to have every time we are present at the Holy Sacrifice.  It’s not just a symbol: we get to be truly present at the moment of our salvation, truly present to the great wedding together of God and humanity: the moment of Christ’s passion, in which he espouses and marries the Church to himself in a permanent and fruitful union: he binds humanity to himself in the wedding feast of God and humanity: nothing can ever separate us again.  And he wants us there again and again at the feast.  He wants us here, wearing the pure garment of faith and holiness and charity. 

This is root of the beautiful tradition of infants wearing a pure white dress to be baptized: an outward sign of the interior purity which baptism brings.  At baptism, original sin is wiped away and, for an adult being baptized, any personal sins as well.  And so the soul just-baptized is perfectly pure, shining with holiness like a beautiful white garment.  Christ asks us to bring that white garment, purely worn on the day of our baptism, unstained to his wedding feast.  Our sins which we commit dirty our wedding garment: the dust from our journey through life discolors our soul and deprives it of that shining purity.  What begins white and shining, becomes a little grey and dull, loses its shine.  But the Lord would never leave us without his help.  And so he offers us the opportunity to make our wedding garment white again: and this is the joy and peace which comes through confession: confession which has been rightly called “the second baptism,” since when we confess our sins and receive absolution from God through his priest, our souls become white as snow again and we are ready to come to the wedding feast wearing that white garment of a pure soul which is so pleasing to God.  Let us rejoice today that our King has invited us to be present at the wedding feast of the Lamb.  God has prepared his banquet for us: and the food and drink of this banquet are his very body and blood.  May our hearts always be ready to rejoice at the great wedding feast of the Lamb.