“The marriage feast is indeed ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.” We are those who have been gathered by the Lord’s servants to take their place. We have cried in tribulation of sin and death, and in response to this cry God has made this invitation. One question remains: Will we put on our wedding garments by inclining our ears to his words? Or will we, in our pride, seek to put on our own garment?
The garment we must choose is the garment of which Paul speaks: that of the new man. The old man, full of deception, anger, envy, and greed is the garment of Satan, which will leave us speechless before Christ, who in his mercy judges us. Such a garment is fit only for those to be bound and cast into the darkness wrought by their own sin. We must not wear this garment, for we must not give any place to the devil.
No, we must allow the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us richly and renew our spirit. When we put on this wedding garment of the new man, we will be filled with holiness and truth. We don this garment by conforming ourselves to Christ, by loving Our Lord above all, by truly loving our neighbor - which means not just teaching the truth in love, but suffering with them as Christ suffered with us. It means living our vocations fearlessly, and for most of us this means as spouses and parents, who are called to love their spouse more than their earthly life and to educate their children in knowledge of God and discipline of body and behavior so they, too, might live a life conformed to Christ, wearing the wedding garment given to them.
May our Saving Lord deliver us from the waywardness of putting on our own wedding garment, and grant us the virtue to put on the garment of following his commands so we might join Him at the eternal marriage feast of the Lamb.