“But when the king had heard of it, he was angry: and sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers, and burnt their city. Then he saith to his servants: ‘The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways; and as many as you shall find, call to the marriage.’ And his servants going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good; and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him: ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment?’ But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.’”
While God’s unchangeable nature of love does not get inflamed to anger as man does, but in justice sends His angels to examine men, who are ultimately judged by their love: “There remain faith, hope, and love, these three: but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13); all that is contrary to love of God and neighbor is an absence of love, and so to be without love is to be nothing. Thus, in having one’s talents, qualities, or feats set aside, and the love with which one lived being measured, many are destroyed: “Behold they are all in the wrong, and their works are vain: their idols are wind and vanity” (Isaias 41:29), and the doctrine and community that upheld them are seen to be nothing but straw: “And thou shalt say to the children of Ammon: ‘Hear ye the word of the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast said: ‘Ha, ha,’ upon my sanctuary, because it was profaned: and upon the land of Israel, because it was laid waste: and upon the house of Juda, because they are led into captivity: therefore will I deliver thee to the men of the east for an inheritance” (Ezechiel 25:3-4). This was the case with the religious leaders that spurned Jesus, that were then crushed by Rome, but is still applicable to those that God desires but refuse the invitation to know His love. However, the Father will not have His Son’s marriage feast be without attendants, desiring many to come to the wedding feast to love and be loved: “I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations, and from all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord: and I will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried away captive” (Jeremias 29:14). In this is a mystery for contemplatives, that to the one that pursues God ardently, He will give the grace to draw in their loved ones, for a wedding with guests from only the groom’s side would be strange, but rather He will draw in a wedding party from His bride’s heart. This is one meaning of “Draw me” (Canticle 1:3), but is also seen later in the divine Canticle: “Our sister is little, and hath no breasts. What shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to?” (Canticle 8:8) meaning that the lover of God sees the lack of love in the heart of their loved one, to which the Bridegroom replies: “If she be a wall: let us build upon it bulwarks of silver: if she e a door, let us join it together with boards of cedar” (Canticle 8:9), meaning that if they are not defiled with grave sin, they will rise to great love, but if they are, it will be restored and they will be drawn into heaven for the sake of the bride, which is your soul. Now, the Apostles and all others that preach the Gospel are sent to invite others to the wedding, and go into the highways of worldly professions, from kings to philosophers to farmers, and call them into the love story: “For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). In all the different ways of life there is a desire for love, with those that are great sinners, those who were unfruitful in their labors, those who are naturally virtuous or filled with talents and success, every heart longs for love, for though there is much laudable about a virtuous life: “And if a man love justice: [wisdom’s] labours have great virtues; for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life” (Wisdom 8:7), it is not being in love and thereby loving: “And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Thus, the naturally good are invited to love, that their beauty may have the glow of love behind it, represented by the gold candlestick that is useless unless it has the fire of love burning in it: “Thou shalt make also a candlestick of beaten work of the finest gold” (Exodus 25:31), and those covered in the filth of sin could be washed clean and adorned with festive garments of great beauty: “Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb: that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city” (Apocalypse 22:14). The King, the Father, then comes in to see the wedding guests, those who came to either marry the Bridegroom in the case of those that go deep into the mystery: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, who feedeth among the lilies” (Canticle 6:2), those that serve Him and His people in other cases: “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do’” (Luke 17:10), or are happy guests in the case of those that are drawn into the fringes by the prayers and devotion of others: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). The Father is everywhere, but in the day of judgment the darkness between man and God will be lifted, and He will be seen more clearly, and His people can measure their deeds. See the day of judgment, Theophila, not as a great and terrible day, for this is for those who need to be jolted into action by the image: “And I saw a great white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was no place found for them” (Apocalypse 20:11), but rather as a wedding feast, towards which you are joyfully running: “We will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments” (Canticle 1:3). When the King then sees someone not robed in the décor of charity, potentially robed with knowledge, faith, and great works, and other such things but having no love: “Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God: having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:2-5). For love is the needle that the hand of the Holy Spirit guides to pull along the string of God’s commandments into the clothing of the new man: “So he made an ephod of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen” (Exodus 39:2). Unless love then stirs into beautiful actions, the garment is not woven, and one then enters the elegant wedding feast in the filthy garments of sin: “My sores are putrified and corrupted, because of my foolishness” (Psalm 37:6) or as it were naked with coldness: “But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Apocalypse 2:4). Thus, the King addresses the one with faith but without love as friend, for this friend partook of heavenly things, yet failed to make good use of them: “For even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, hath greatly supplanted me” (Psalm 40:10), and is speechless on account of this, for even those without what God offers seek self-improvement, but when God offers to become one’s Beloved, and tells what He likes and what He dislikes and yet this is seen as paltry, it is the fault of the one who does not embrace this with joy and determination, and therefore is without excuse: “Fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). When one’s hands are bound, this means that sin: “He that committeth sin is of the devil: for the devilv sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God appeared, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8) or fear: “Woe to them that are fainthearted, who believe not God: and therefore they shall not be protected by him” (Ecclesiasticus 2:15) constricts one from doing acts of love, and with hands thus bound, they are thrown into the outer darkness, which indicate the deepest depths of an absence of love: “He that hateth his brother, is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth; because the darkness hath blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11), with teeth chattering from the coldness of their hearts, and their eyes weeping from seeing the needs of their neighbor and not acting upon them: “He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). Finally, when Jesus says that many are called, but few chosen, it means that the Gospel falls upon the ears of many, but some never respond to it with a course towards heaven, with others beginning and halting under love’s demands. To the one that loves and loves to the end will be the reward of being a chosen vessel of grace, to bear the seal of God’s love: “To him that overcometh, I will give the hidden manna, and will give him a white counter, and in the counter, a new name written, which no man knoweth, but he that receiveth it” (Apocalypse 2:17).