For Sunday, October 12, 2014 – Matthew 22:1-14
Reflection by Eileen Miller *
Having a teenage daughter, I have seen a few episodes of the TLC television show, Say ‘Yes’ to the Dress, in which brides-to-be choose the “perfect” wedding dress. Finding the right dress to match one’s style, size and budget can be a challenge, and excitement ensues when the young woman finally says “yes” to a dress that the show’s hosts find for her. Sometimes the drama surrounding the decision makes it seem that the bride will be exchanging vows with the dress rather than her groom! Granted, a wedding is a very special occasion and any couple will want to look their best, but the focus on appearances can be over-the-top.
Over-the-top like a wedding guest being bound and thrown out into the darkness for appearing at a banquet not dressed in the proper garment. This scripture has always sounded rather harsh to me. Especially when I was a child, I did not understand why someone would be punished simply for not wearing a wedding garment. The king did not fit my understanding of a loving, welcoming, just God who would never judge someone based on appearances. What I did not yet understand was that the wedding garment represented the repentance and change of heart and mind required to enter God’s kingdom. What mattered was not how the man was dressed; what mattered was whether or not he was prepared. Had he—have we—“put on Christ” in preparation for meeting our God and Savior?
In Ezekiel God promised the people, “I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.” A heart of stone, unlike a “natural” heart, is hard, rigid, inflexible, impenetrable, incapable of growth or change. Like the wedding guests of today’s gospel, we are called to put on the garment of repentance—which is to let our hearts and minds be changed. Are there ways in which our hearts have become hardened? Are there areas of our lives that we have not been allowing God to touch? Now is the time to ask God to soften us and to place a new spirit within us. Now is the time to put on the garment of repentance and get ready to enter the feast of God’s kingdom.
* Eileen Miller lives in Dayton, Ohio, where she is a spiritual director and writes for Immaculate Conception Church’s Daily Reflections.
