14th Sunday after Pentecost  
2 Corinthians 1:21-24, 2:1-4; Matthew 22:1-14

"'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.” (Matthew 22:12)

In the time of Jesus Christ, Jews, and probably other neighbouring peoples, had a custom to wear special garments intended for weddings.

Such clothes, worn over the usual ones, were provided by the person who organized the wedding.

But Christ delivered a life example, a parable, so that people would understand matters of the spirit matters. He began the parable by saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son…." (Matthew 22:2).

Naturally, all His listeners understood that only those people who wore wedding garments provided by the king-host were permitted to attend the king’s wedding, and, likewise, only those people who have the appropriate spiritual clothes can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God the Father invites us to the "wedding" of His Son, that is, to the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of Christ. Christ is the bridegroom, and the Church is his bride.

Thus, it is clear that we need to have Christ’s garments, the garments of the Heavenly King. Do we possess that garment of Christ?

- "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:2-7).

In holy baptism, we acquire spiritual purity, and after baptism – a spiritual birth. In the early centuries, adults, who were prepared both by the knowledge of God and by spiritual efforts, acquired that spiritual purity, and as a sign of spiritual purity they were dressed in light clothes. Dressed in long white shirts, they stood holding candles (representing the heart burning with love for the Lord) during the Divine Service, and then received Holy Communion.

When we baptize a child, as a sign of his/her spiritual purity after baptism, the child is wrapped in a clean linen cloth. We should all correctly understand that it is not those white shirts, nor that white cloth which are the garments of Christ, but the bright state of one’s soul.

We clothe ourselves spiritually in the name of Christ; we pledge to Christ (as godparents do on behalf of the child) to be faithful to Christ. We swear to Christ that we will keep his garments - our state of mind - clean, unsullied.

Christ's garment is given to a person for a lifetime; however, it does require cleaning, for it becomes sullied by our imperfect lives. Thus, in light of this parable about the invitation to the wedding, and the reference to the need for Christ's wedding garment, let us ask ourselves the following questions:

a) What is the state of our Christ's clothing, what is the state of our soul now? Do we confess Christ every day, or only on Sundays for an hour or two?

b) Did we truly purify our soul when we went to Confession; did we really forgive people and repent?

c) Did we strive for purity of soul, or did we just go through the motions, pro forma, just to keep up appearances?

d) Let us consider our life in the light of God's Commandments; let us consider at least the first Commandment - do we believe that there is only one God? – If so, good.

But, as Apostle James says: "Even demons believe - and tremble." (James 2.19). And, do we feel God in our heart, in our desires, in our daily life? Or, are the foundational, primary things money, estates, fine relaxation, sunbathing, entertainment and, lastly, when we find the free time, then we will also remember God?

We must not deceive ourselves: God can only be first and foremost in our lives; He cannot be something secondary. If God, his Truth, his instructions-testaments are not the primary and most important thing for us, then we do not recognize and we do not profess the one God. We only incidentally and among other things, know a little about Him. If so, then we have made material, creature comforts our idols. (2nd Commandment of God).

When we are thoughtless, when we have no desire to fulfill the will of God, then we invoke the name of God in vain - this is a sin against the 3rd Commandment of God.

And as for how we keep the 4th Commandment of God, how we honour the Lord’s Day – this we can easily determine.

According to those mentioned initial and basic Commandments, we can determine through our conscience the purity of our soul - the purity of Christ's garments. Are we ready to appear before Christ at his "wedding", to which the Heavenly Father invites us? Does our garment of Christ need a major repair, cleaning?

We are quite likely in need of spiritual rebirth and healing. We need to begin taking care of ourselves, we need to direct our lives in such a way that God, the teachings of Christ, occupy the first and foremost place in our lives.

Let us be proud that we are Orthodox Christians, but let us try to live daily as Orthodox Christians and every Sunday, on the Lord’s Day, to serve the Lord and our God. We must keep in mind that when we do not have a sense of our Christ's attire, when Christ does not dwell in our soul, then the Heavenly King will say to his servants: "Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the outer darkness..." (Matthew 22:13)

Let us not forget that those words were spoken by Christ and, thus, He expressed the will of God. There are those who like to console themselves: But who among us will be saved, who will be worthy of the Kingdom of God, when many people do not care about that garment of Christ, about its purity?

Even Christ's disciples, when the Lord spoke in this way, asked Him: "Who then can be saved?" And Jesus looked and said to them:

"This is impossible with men, but all things are possible with God." (Matthew 19:25,26)

The Lord can raise a person from the greatest fall and bring him closer to Himself when he has sincere intentions for salvation in his Creator. However, let us not forget the initial story in the parable: those who rejected the invitations of God - those were rejected by God.

God rejected not only ungodly people, but also those who were outwardly, who outwardly showed that they were pious, who dressed piously, who even sacrificed to the temple, but inside themselves and by their deeds were far from God and did not accept Christ.

God sent His servants - the apostles to the pagans who did not know the only God, and His house was filled. The Church of Christ was formed; it united those people in particular. And when we neglect God's invitations, the same thing can happen to us - God's house, Christ's Church will be filled with the current unenlightened.

The Lord calls everyone, but few people find time for Him. And that is why Christ ended the story of the parable with the words: "For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22,14).

Amen.

Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko

Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.

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