Vigils Reading – 28th Sunday

A reading from

ST AUGUSTINE

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All believers are familiar with the story of the wedding of the king’s son

and the banquet that followed it, and of how the Lord’s table was thrown open to

all comers. When everyone was seated the master of the house came in to see

the guests, and among them he noticed one without a wedding garment. So he

said to him, “My friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?”

Now what precisely does this mean? Let us try to find out what it is that

some believers have, but which the wicked lack, for that will be what the

wedding garment is.

Can it be one of the sacraments? Hardly, for these, as we know, are

common to good and bad alike. Take baptism for example. It is true that no one

comes to God except through baptism, but not every baptized person comes to

him. We cannot take this sacrament as the wedding garment, then, for it is a

robe worn not only by good people but also by wicked people. Perhaps, then, it is

our altar that is meant, or at least what we receive from it. But we know that

many who approach the altar eat and drink to their own damnation. Well, then,

maybe it is fasting? The wicked can fast too. What about going to church? Some

bad people also go to church.

Whatever can this wedding garment be, then? For an answer we must go

to the Apostle who says: The purpose of our command is to arouse the love that

springs from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith. There is

your wedding garment. It is not love of just any kind. Many people of bad

conscience appear to love one another, but you will not find in them the love

that springs from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a genuine faith. Only

that kind of love is the wedding garment.

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, says the Apostle, but have no

love, I am nothing but a booming gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift

of prophecy, if I have all knowledge and understand all mysteries, if I have

faith strong enough to move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. In

other words, even with all these gifts I am nothing without Christ. Does that

mean that prophecy has no value and that knowledge of mysteries is worthless?

No, they are not worthless but I am, if I possess them but have no love.

But can the lack of one good thing rob so many others of their value? Yes,

without love my confession of the name of Christ even by shedding my blood or

offering my body to be burnt will avail me nothing, for I may do this out of a

desire for glory. That such things can be endured for the sake of empty show

without any real love for God the Apostle also declares. Listen to him: If I give

away all I have to the poor, if I hand over my body to be burnt, but have no

love, it will avail me nothing. So this is what the wedding garment is. Examine

yourselves to see whether you possess it. If you do, your place at the Lord’s table

is secure.