DRESS FOR THE WEDDING

A REFLECTION FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

We’ve all been to weddings, I’m sure.  Some of you have even been to your own wedding.  If you think back, one of the big questions, especially for the ladies, is what to wear.  The bride has her own problems, especially if she’s trying to keep to something modest in these days of backless, sleeveless dresses that have so little material that they really ought to cost a lot less.  But all the ladies at the wedding have to figure out what to put on, based on not only modesty, but the weather, the season of the year, perhaps the color coordination the bride wants, other factors that no man will ever understand.

Eventually the choice is made, and unless we’re dealing with some weird personality that insists on “being himself” or “herself”, what everyone’s choice of dress has in common is that they end up wearing something “nice,” something appropriate for the solemnity of the occasion they’re attending.  And anyone who ends up wearing something unsuitable will be looked at with scorn and derision.  Today’s Gospel gives us the analogy of the wedding garment representing our soul.  And if we are so “weird” as to present ourselves on that solemn day of judgment with a soul that is stained and dirty and totally unsuitable for the occasion, be assured that we will be treated by the King with the same scorn and derision we read about in the parable.  “Get him out of here,” the King demands, “throw him out into the darkness, and let him gnash his teeth forever for daring to behave this way.”

The Epistle today tells us one of the ways in which our soul would be unsuitable for presentation.  If we harbor anger, or any other sin, beyond the normal time allocated for dealing with its cause, we will be found guilty of that sin.  If we hang on to an attachment to our sin and are not completely repentant for having committed it, or fully resolved not to commit it again, then our soul is not fit for the kingdom of heaven.  If the attachment is not totally worthy of damnation, then perhaps we may be allowed to gnash our teeth for a much shorter period than in the everlasting fires of hell.  But be assured that we will be purged one way or another.

Purgatory is a place where souls suffer for a time after death on account of their sins.  Which sins?  Chiefly, I think, for those very sins which continue to stain our souls by our attachment to them.  Stains disappear from our garments if we wash them properly.  But if we we’re not careful enough to soak them long enough, those ketchup stains may not be so bright, but they will still continue to spoil the pristine and immaculate look we want in our clothes.  Our sins do the same, and it is imperative that we take the trouble to summon up in our heart and soul a perfect contrition for our sins, a firm and unshakable resolution not to commit them again, and indeed a proper horror as we contemplate our past misdeeds.  If we don’t do it here, preferably on a daily basis in our examination of conscience and Act of Contrition, then we have been warned that our purging will be achieved after we die in a far darker and more painful way.  So “let not the sun go down” on your sins, “neither give place to the devil.”  It just isn’t worth it.