Clothed in Divine Love 28th Sunday Year A
Isaiah 25:6-10a; Psalm 23; Philippians 4:12-14, 19-20; Matthew 22:1-14
In the first reading, Isaiah prophesies that one day God “will destroy death forever.” This is followed by excerpts from Psalm 23, which describes God as a Good Shepherd who leads us to “verdant pastures,” who “refreshes” our souls and gives us rest. Even if we “walk in the dark valley,” we are to “fear no evil; for” the Lord God is at our “side,” with his “rod and staff,” giving us “courage.”
In the second reading, Paul writes that he has learned to be at peace whether he is experiencing hunger and need or has all his physical needs met, because he trusts in the Lord God, our Father, and in Jesus, our good shepherd.
Finally, in the Gospel passage, Jesus tells a parable in which he likens his Heavenly Father to a king who invites guests to a wedding banquet, where people celebrate joyfully at the prospect of a man and woman coming together to bring new life into the world. How are we to interpret the king’s response at the wedding banquet when he is told that a man at the banquet is not wearing “a wedding garment” and the king orders his attendants to “cast” the man “into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth”?
The non-wedding garment that the condemned man was wearing, comments Brant Pitre, refer to a specific kind of garment that ancient Jewish people were required to wear at a wedding feast. This garment, in turn, refers to the spiritual garments of righteousness that God clothes those who act in accordance with God’s will. Isaiah refers to these garments with, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10) A few chapters later, Matthew describes Jesus specifying that being clothed in righteousness entails feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick and those in prison, and welcoming the stranger.[1] (Matthew 25:37-40) Citing Pope St. Gregory the Great, Pitre comments:
What then must we understand by the wedding garment but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding garment, who is present in the holy church. He may have faith, but he does not have love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because that is what our Creator himself possessed when he came to the marriage feast to join the church to himself.[2]
To experience the peace Paul had, whether in poverty or wealth, we are to be clothed in garments of love that only Jesus can give us. As our Good Shepherd, Jesus wants us to walk through this world, including the dark valleys of this world, without fear for the Lord is with us and he has clothed us in robes of righteousness which is nothing other than our participation in the perfect love of Jesus. – May God Bless You All – Father Peter
[1] Brant Pitre, “28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A),” catholicproductions.com.
[2] Brant Pitre, “28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A),” catholicproductions.com. Pitre cites, Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies 38:9; trans. M. Simonetti, 146. Pitre also cites the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Words are not enough, deeds are required.” “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” vatican.va, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1L.HTM#-M3, no. 546.
