1st Michaelmas 2010, Who Is Like God?

1^st Michaelmas

Matthew 22, 1-14

And Jesus continued to speak in parables to them:

The kingdom of the heavens arising in human hearts is like a man, a king, who prepared a marriage feast for his son. And he sent out his servants to call the guests who had been invited to the marriage, but they would not come.

Then he again sent out other servants, and said , “Say to those who have been invited, ‘Think, I have prepared my best for the banquet, the sacrificial oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready. Come quickly to the wedding.”

But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest however took hold of the servants, mistreated them and killed them.

Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out therefore to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.”

And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

But the man was speechless.

Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the darkness, where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, yet only a few make themselves bearers of the higher life.”

1^st Michaelmas Sunday

October 3, 2010

Matthew 22: 1-14

It is the time when fruits of the field are gathered in. These fruits contain the seeds of next year’s life. They are the fruits of the collaboration between nature’s labor, nature’s life, and ours.

We are also laboring to create fruits in our own lives, to create the seeds of the next life. For there is indeed always a next life. The gospel reading hints at this seed-being in us: the whole story is in the context of a wedding. And a wedding stands at the beginning of a fruitful, generative relationship.

Yet the gospel also hints at several things that hinder us from generating new life: the first is not heeding the invitation. Opting for generative life is indeed a choice, a decision. Then there is being too caught up with the ordinary earthly, or even being actively destructive, like those who kill the messengers. What also hinders is a lack of inner follow-through, like the man who arrives, but does not go so far as to put on the wedding garment.

But for those who heed the invitation, who take the time out of their busy lives to show up, who put on the garment of pure love and joy, there is an opportunity. They can begin to converse as friends with the King and His Son. It is the beginning of generating a new kingdom on earth; a kingdom arising in human hearts, a kingdom of pure generative love.  This is what we pray for in the Act of Consecration of Man—that in offering ourselves, there be born in us the gentle warmth of creative love.

Michael the Archangel, whose feast we celebrate now, is often pictured in art as holding balance scales. He is a kind of gatekeeper. Michael, whose name means ‘Who is like God?’ weighs human hearts. He is looking for those souls whose hearts are feather-light with potential for the radiance of love. It is these souls he admits to the wedding; to them he gives the wedding garment and leads them into the hall that is beginnings of the kingdom.

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