The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today our Holy Mother, the Church, desires that we consider Jesus' parable of the Wedding Feast. Jesus first came to the House of Israel. They, however, refused to accept Jesus and the faith He taught and enter the Church. God sent an army to destroy these people and burn their cities. Historically we saw this in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

The Chosen People of the Old Testament rejected Jesus and the Church He established. They even killed Jesus. For this, they are rejected by God and destroyed. God, therefore, sent forth Apostles to all the other Nations. Go forth and preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. In the parable, the King sent His servants into the highways to bring in everyone —both good and bad. In the Church, Jesus opens the way for everyone in all walks of life —the great and the lowly; the rich and the poor; the old and the young; men and women; educated and the uneducated; etc.

The priesthood is no longer an inherited position. In the Church, He chooses the priests of God from among all nations and families. Religious vocations come from vastly different families and backgrounds. Everyone is invited from all walks of life, and all may enter.

Sinners are welcome; however, they are asked to put on the wedding garment of charity. The sins that covered us while we were on the world's highways must now be taken off. In the place of sin, we must put on virtue. Those who enter the Church but refuse to take off their vices and put on virtues will be cast out like the man without a wedding garment in the parable.

From the Fathers of the Church, we see that Pseudo-Chrysostom says: "As often as God tries His Church, He goes into it, to see the guests. And should He find one not having on a wedding garment, He asks him: Why did you become a Christian if you neglect these works? Christ then delivers such a one to His ministers; that is, to certain masters of seduction; and they bind his hands, that is his good works, and his feet, that is, the movements of his soul; and they cast him into exterior darkness; that is, amid the errors of the Gentiles, or of the Jews, or into heresy. The nearer darkness is that of the Gentiles, for they have not heard the truth they reject. The exterior darkness is that of the Jews, who have heard but have not believed. But the outermost darkness is that of heretics, who have both heard and learned the truth."

We have entered the Church, but have we put on the proper attire of virtue? Do we truly live as Catholics should live? It is a great grace that God has invited us to enter the Church. However, we must cooperate with this grace by doing our part and putting on the wedding garment. Sadly, we see that history records many that were once within the Church but now are in darkness. They imagine they are safe and walking in the light, but their perception of light is greatly distorted.

Heresy blinds us relatively easily because it appeals to our fallen natures. The heretic refuses to believe anything that makes him uncomfortable. He embraces everything that offers him worldly comfort and success. This is blindness because it reduces men to a lower station than irrational animals. Animals are trained by manipulating their basic desires to avoid pain and pursue pleasure. Devils easily manipulate heretics in this same manner. This situation is beneath animals that only do what God made them to do. Humans that sink to this level do not do what God created them to do.

The blindness causes them to believe they are still within the Church while they are far from Her. The heretics think they are loving God and doing His Will, but in truth, they only do the devil's bidding. They pick and choose what they want to accept and reject what they do not like. In essence, they create a god in their own image and likeness. Far from conforming to the One True God, they bow down before a false idol made from bits and pieces that they imitate from the True God and True Church.

We have been invited to enter the Church by our baptism, and we have entered. Let us put on the wedding garment of Charity (love) as we labor to put off vice and cover ourselves with virtue. We should frequently pray to be preserved from spiritual binding and darkness and renew our acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity. We should seek to believe everything the Church teaches and reject everything that contradicts this.

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