Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
Having a teenage daughter, I have seen a few episodes of the television show, “Say ‘Yes’ to the Dress.” If you haven’t heard (or seen), it’s a show in which brides-to-be are brought in with their families to choose the “perfect” wedding dress. Finding the right dress to match their style, size, and budget is sometimes a challenge, and excitement ensues when the young woman finally says “yes” to a dress that the show’s hosts have found for her. Sometimes the drama surrounding the decision makes it seem as if the bride is exchanging vows with the dress rather than her groom! Granted, a wedding is a very special occasion and the couple and guests want to look their best, but sometimes the focus on appearance seems over-the-top.
In today’s gospel reading of Matthew’s account of the Parable of the Wedding Feast (22: 1-14), however, we hear of a guest being bound and thrown out into the darkness for appearing at the banquet not dressed in a wedding garment. Now, this sounds rather harsh to me and I remember being perplexed by this parable as a young girl. I didn’t understand why the man would be punished so harshly for not wearing a wedding garment. This King, representing God, didn’t fit with my understanding of a loving, welcoming, just God who wouldn’t judge someone or turn them away based on their appearance. What I didn’t understand was that the “wedding garment” was symbolic of the repentance and change of heart and mind that are required of us to enter God’s kingdom. It isn’t about how the man was dressed; it is really about him not being prepared. It’s about whether or not we’ve gotten “cleaned up” and put on Christ in preparation for meeting our God and Savior.
In today’s first reading (Ezekiel 36: 23-28), we hear how God has promised to restore the house of Israel by cleansing the people of their sins and giving them new hearts. The ancient Israelites understood the human heart to be the center of intelligence, feelings and will. So, it is quite a significant change being referred to in verse 26 when God says, “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 is hard, rigid, inflexible, impenetrable, and incapable of growth or change. A “natural” heart is soft, flexible, penetrable, able to grow and change, which also means open to repentance. Like the wedding guests of today’s gospel, we are called to put on a garment of repentance and change of heart and mind. Perhaps some parts of our hearts have become hardened. Is there an area of our lives that we have not been allowing God to touch recently (or for a long time)? Now is the time to ask God to soften the “stony” parts of our heart and place a new spirit within us, so that we may put on the garment of repentance and be ready to enter the feast of God’s kingdom.
Eileen Miller