How the Parable of the Wedding Feast reveals the judgement of the wicked
'Friend, how camest thou in hither?' The question uncovers the soul’s helpless silence at God’s judgment, where every excuse has vanished, and only truth remains.
‘Friend, how camest thou in hither?’ The question uncovers the soul’s helpless silence at God’s judgment, where every excuse has vanished, and only truth remains.
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Father Coleridge tells us…
How the King’s question unmasks the self-delusions we can carry to the judgment seat.
That no excuse will stand when the light of eternity reveals every falsehood and pretence.
Why one man is singled out, not to suggest rarity, but to make the warning personal.
He shows us that silence before God’s question is itself the judgment of the unprepared soul.
For more context on this chapter, see Part I.
The Wedding of the King’s Son
Passiontide, Part I
Chapter VI
St. Matt. xxii. 1-14; Story of the Gospels, § 137.
Burns and Oates, London, 1886.
(Read at Holy Mass on the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
Why did Christ speak of a wedding feast after condemning the priests?
The Parable of the Wedding Feast and the judgement of the wicked
‘How camest thou in hither?’
We may now turn from the consideration of the various ways in which this expression of our Lord about the wedding garment may be understood to that of the gracious though severe manner in which the King is said to have dealt with his unworthy guest.
‘And the King went in to see the guests, and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment.’
The man was a ‘spot on the feast,’ as St. Jude speaks, conspicuous among the happy company by something incongruous and unseemly, as one who might go among ourselves into a wedding feast in robes of deepest mourning, or enter a great Court ceremonial in the clothes he may wear while ploughing in the fields or sweeping a chimney.
This may be one of the reasons why our Lord speaks only of one, without meaning us to understand that there will be but one or few unworthy among those who are called to the banquet and obey the invitation. The doctrine which our Lord intends to convey is sufficiently and even more pointedly taught by the one instance, and, as some of the commentators tell us, this manner of setting forth the truth brings it home most closely to each soul, for it is seen that men are not called and admitted and tested in a multitude, but each single soul by itself.
Our Lord speaks as if the King used no sharp rebuke to the offender. ‘Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?’ The poor man had his opportunity given to him of making his excuse and explanation—if there were any to be made. But he is ‘judged out of his own mouth,’ for he has no reply to make to the question.
The great truth which lies behind this is that there will be no question at all when the judgment of God is to be given. The light of the next world reveals all secrets, exposes all subterfuges and evasions, pulverizes all pretences, dissipates all clouds, unravels all webs. There is in the next world hatred of God as well as love, there is aversion from good as well as aversion from evil, misery as well as happiness, despair as well as security. But there is no delusion, no single wicked soul among all God’s enemies who has not seen that he has wilfully rejected his own happiness, and that the measure which God metes out to him is somewhat less than he deserves.
A soul in the condition which is here represented to us parts with all its self-delusions when it passes through death. The false theories about the Church, and about the obligation of faith, and the conditions of salvation, and the rights of conscience, and the like, which seemed full of a miserable comfort, have all vanished as ‘a dream when one awaketh’ there. And so this soul might have said to itself a hundred things to excuse the fault, whatever it may have been, which is represented by the want of the wedding garment, but when it is there to place them before God, they are already gone.
The sentence
All is over now. ‘But he was silent.’ The majesty of the King may have been great, and the show of power and pomp in his attendants may have been impressive, and the presence of the multitude of guests among whom this man was the one exception found, may have been overpowering. But what circumstances of this kind can be compared to the truth of the parable, when God the Judge of all in His Majesty is the questioner, and the whole world of angels and men form the assembly before whom the poor sinner stands?
‘Then the King said to the waiters, Bind his hands and his feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness.’
The punishment implies that the time is past when the sinner can help himself. He is bound hand and foot. He has no longer the power of moving or working, because the time of grace is past when this rejection takes place, and no works done without grace are of any value spiritually. And he is cast into the darkness which reigns everywhere outside the kingdom of light, which is lit up by the presence of God, and of which our Lord is the light.
The twofold punishment which our Lord adds may be considered either as spoken by Him as a commentary on the parable or as belonging to the parable itself. The two may be used to express mourning, remorse, horror at the state in which men will find themselves, and above all despair and self-reproach. There is no express word about physical torments, for those belong to another part of the sentence. They correspond exactly to the evil works of which men have been guilty, not precisely to their sins of omission and neglect of God’s blessed offers, and misuse or contempt of grace.
‘Many called, few chosen’
The clause added at the end, ‘For many are called, but few chosen,’ seems to be meant to teach us that the danger of forfeiting God’s blessings lasts up to the very closing of the doors of the heavenly banquet. This guest is represented as one among many, one lost among many saved.
This at least might be concluded from the language of the parable. We have already explained why, as it may be thought, only one is spoken of. But he relied upon his having been called, and had not taken the pains to make himself fit to be chosen. He had not understood the responsibilities and essential obligations of his calling.
It was but just, therefore, that the sentence of exclusion should fall upon him, and our Lord means us to take to heart the lesson of his case, and to tell us also that there will be many indeed, at the last day, who will have the same sentence as he.
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The Wedding of the King’s Son
Why did Christ speak of a wedding feast after condemning the priests?
The Parable of the Wedding Feast and the judgement of the wicked
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