“YOU ARE CHOSEN”
Saint Matthew 22.1-14
The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity: 21 October Anno Domini 2007
Fr Watson
YOU ARE CHOSEN. That is something to really rejoice in; that is good news. When the Lord answers a question; when God speaks the truth, it is a sin to argue with Him, question Him or disagree with Him. When the Christ says: "This is My Body; this is My Blood" it is sinful to believe that the Supper is only bread and wine. When Jesus says the "Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son" than that is what you bend the knee to and say "Praise the Lord." When Jesus says "For many are called, but few are chosen" that is a reality that you give thanks for and accept by faith; faith worked only by God the Holy Ghost.
The sad divisions among the post-Reformation church, along with the errors of the medieval pre-Reformation Church, are the result of sinfully arguing with the Trinity. God's revelation as to "who is saved" may not make sense to your reason and concept of justice or equity, but who are you "oh sinful, fallen, and cracked vessel of clay?"
Do not condemn God for "unfairness." Do not second guess the Lord for your fallible, trespass-stained thought processes.
Not everyone will be in heaven. I am sorry for this. My opinion or emotion does not mean a thing. The King invites Who He invites to His wedding feast; the Marriage Banquet, of His Son.
Who does He invite? Everyone is invited. God wants all men to be saved. This is what Scripture, which is Revelation of God's very "heart," makes clear in John 3.16 as well as in John's Epistle and Paul. The fatted calf is slain for all to eat of; Jesus died for all sinners. This joyful reality is proclaimed by the true servants of the King to all invited. This Gospel is preached by the Church through Her pastors and also shared with the world by the Church's parishioners. "Come to the Wedding" may sound like Law, telling one to "do" something, but in reality it is the good news of feeding someone with the word before they are subsequently fed with the calf; with the Sacrament. The proclamation of "Come to the Wedding" is the preachment of "Believe in Jesus Who loves you and forgives you by dying for you." The Word contains in Itself the very power which transforms, converts, and re-generates dead hearts. The Word gives what it asks for: faith.
Why do some, a lot, reject this Word, this Gospel, and despise the King, His Son, and the Banquet Hall? Why do the numerous refuse Grace? Sin is the easy and one-word answer, but it is an answer that is both unsettling and un-satisfying to you; you fellow sinners. Men reject Jesus by free will; by fallen natures.
I am sorry for this. My human reason, like yours, like the great minds of both the Pope's church and the Protestant Sects, cannot answer this riddle without being unfaithful to the Word of God.
God does love all. God the Son did die for all. All, are thus "invited" (that's what the phrase "many are called" means at the end of the text). When Jesus says "few are chosen" this means that not everyone will eventually wind up at the dinner table with Him and with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Not everyone will be in heaven.
YOU ARE CHOSEN. Be joyful fellow saints for you have been invited. Jesus came to this world and took body and blood just like you have. Jesus came to this slaughter house and worked perfectly to do all that the Father wanted done. Jesus became the final and all-compassing sacrifice for your sins and the sins of everyone else. You have been "called" by this wonderful reality through Jesus' Word. This word came to you in your + Baptism. It came to you even before your washing when your pregnant mother sat week after week in a pew hearing the word and receiving the Savior in His meal. This word has continued to come to you in Sunday school, catechesis, and Divine Service. The fact that you are + Baptized, that you are here for today's most Holy Mass, that you will in mere minutes be eating and drinking with Jesus, JESUS, marks you as one claimed by Christ Crucified. You have that white wedding garment upon you; I see it with my eyes of faith, God sees it; you see it when you remember "You + are Baptized."
YOU ARE CHOSEN. You are here now, at the foretaste of the feast to come, and you rejoice and are glad. There are many more that may not be here with you, yet, but, will be brought in to the wedding hall, by God's Servants, people, WORD, before the end comes. You rejoice in that fact, that God does love the World, that He does desire all to be with you at Table. Reject further questions, doubts, anxieties, and ponderings, for the day has problems enough without trying to plumb the inscrutable, impenetrable mind of the Trinity.
You don't look to yourself or to your own qualifications. You don't look to your own character, works, or worthiness. You have been called. You have been clothed. You have been seated. You look to Christ's love, past, present and future. You will eat and drink, today, forever.
YOU ARE CHOSEN.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost