“And Jesus answering, spoke again in parables to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants, to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: ‘Tell them that were invited, ‘Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the marriage.’’ But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, put them to death.’”
Knowing the hate that is boiling in the hearts of the religious leaders, Jesus, as an artful swordsman, moves from a disciplinary lesson to a lovely invitation, the invitation to the divine marriage: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath prepared herself” (Apocalypse 19:7). The Father created all things as a wedding festival for His Son, with your life being that of the bride, and the wedding feast has begun in baptism: “The king has brought me into his storerooms” (Canticle 1:3). Looking from the broad perspective of humanity, however, the call to love one another has always been ingrained in the heart: “For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these having not the law are a law to themselves” (Romans 2:14), but He sent Moses, the judges, the righteous kings, and the prophets to invite them into the love of God and neighbor, for love is stapled throughout these writings, if you have the eye to look: “Search the scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of me” (John 5:39). Yet, no one heeds the commandments of the Old Testament: “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?” (John 7:19), and so Jesus sends His Apostles to preach the commandments of love: “My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). However, the mysteries of the Old Covenant are only truly opened in light of Christ: “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book, written within and without, sealed with seven seals… And I saw… a Lamb standing as it were slain… and he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had opened the book… they sung a new canticle, saying: ‘Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof’” (Apocalypse 5:1-9), and therefore the invitation did not seem enticing to those who enjoyed sin or worldly things more than righteousness: “Thou hast love malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness” (Psalm 51:5). However, the invitation of the Apostles is to feast on the decadent feast of truth: “Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8), that in the Scriptures one may find the love they have long desired: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremias 31:3). This understanding of the truth and the wind in the sails comes with love then gives strength of spirit, representative of the oxen, and the sweet pleasures of fatted calves, for to speak timidly and uncertainly is a lean offering, but a heart that is full of love and a mind full of truth is bold and strong: “A wise man is strong: and a knowing man, stout and valiant” (Proverbs 24:5). Or, the fatted calf can be the Gospel strengthened by philosophy: “Stand in the multitude of ancients that are wise, and join thyself from thy heart to their wisdom” (Ecclesiasticus 6:35), which is a glorious feast when intellectual hypertrophy does not inhibit the heart: “We will be glad and rejoice in thee, remembering thy breasts more than wine: the righteous love thee” (Canticle 1:3). When the king then says, “all things are ready,” this means that all that is required for you to fall in love is in the Scriptures, for in them God opens His Heart to you: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3); “Secret things to the Lord our God: things that are manifest, to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29), giving you refreshment when your heart is heavy: “Thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee” (Isaias 43:4), truth where you may be ignorant: “All wisdom is from the Lord God” (Ecclesiasticus 1:1), correction where you have a loose thread: “She hath made for herself clothing of tapestry: fine linen, and purple is her covering” (Proverbs 31:22), and direction to action: “’Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbour to him that fell among the robbers?’ But he said: ‘He that shewed mercy to him.’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Go, and do thou in like manner’” (Luke 10:36-37). To go to the marriage, then, is to enter into a covenant of love with God: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremias 31:33), who desires for you to feast on His love and truth by holy reading and any devotion you desire: “He brought me into the cellar of wine” (Canticle 2:4), but, Theophila, how many like light of the magnificence of this! Rather, work or material things become the focus of one’s life, leaving the Beloved cold and at the wayside of life, rather than being the center point, an entire relationship with the Most High set aside for trivialities that won’t last: “Neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Some, however, not just turning aside from this covenant of love, actively oppose it by persecuting those who would bring it to them: “And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him” (Acts 7:57).