Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Just like most of Jesus’ parables, this one has many layers and is rich with many symbols that can be savored and explored. For the sake of space, I would like to focus on the setting of the parable: the wedding feast

We were created for joy and celebration. And so this parable tests how much each of us is still in touch with the vocation to joy native to our deepest being. Where there is fullness of life, there joy will naturally overflow. After a certain point, the two concepts of “life” and “joy” naturally blur into each other, and the fulfilled man is the one who cannot tell the difference between them. The wedding feast is such a natural and human example of joy, life, and celebration intertwining together. So, it seems fitting that Jesus uses the wedding feast to portray the Kingdom of Heaven.

But Jesus’ description of the wedding is lacking such an important character! Where is the bride? There is a king, his son, servants, guests that refuse to come, food and drink, more servants and more guests, but there is no bride! A commentator insightfully points out that when one looks out onto a scene and sees that someone is missing, it might just be because you are that someone. In the wedding feast of the Kingdom of Heaven, the king’s son, Jesus, is the groom, and the Church, you and I, are his bride. The Father has called us to His Son, called us to become one with Him. This is the source of our life and joy: that we are so beloved by our God that He has made himself like a groom for us.

Let us then, this week contemplate the groom, Jesus, and bask in his loving gaze as we walk steadily towards Him, full of joy, life and celebration.

Thibault Vincent