Dear Friends in Christ,
This week my mind is still thinking about the Gospel from last Sunday, the Parable of the Wedding Feast. As you recall, the parable concludes with the king entering the banquet hall and seeing a man not dressed in the proper wedding garment. The king then banishes him from the wedding banquet.
Each Sunday at Mass, we participate in the wedding feast of the King’s Son. The Liturgy itself offers us an image of what our whole life should be. Before Mass, the priest puts on vestments. In putting on these garments, the priest is, in a sense, meant to disappear, to fade into the background. This is so Christ himself becomes more visible. It is why the priest doesn’t make things up according to his own preferences during the Mass. His role–and the role of all the ministers–is to humbly place themselves at the service of the Sacred Liturgy. They do this by adhering to the liturgical texts and norms that the Church herself gives to them. The words the ministers speak, their postures, the manner in which they are to close or extend their hands, their movements etc. are all prescribed in the various liturgical books. In a sense, this is so that the Liturgy is saved from the personality of the individual.
There are times in the Liturgy when there are options. For instance, the priest can opt to chant or to speak certain parts of the Mass. There are several Eucharistic Prayers and Prefaces from which the priest can choose Or, at the end of Mass, the deacon has four options from which to conclude the Mass: “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” “Go in peace.” But, even with all of these options, the ministers are required to adhere to them. The priest cannot add things to the Eucharistic Prayers or mix them together. In vesting before Mass, the priest is reminded that it is Christ himself who now presides over the Mass. The priest is meant to “put on Christ” the Head, Shepherd, and Bridegroom of the Church.
This is all a model for us in the Christian life. More and more, we are meant to put on Christ. We are meant to put on that wedding garment and become more configured to Jesus Christ. The “old man” is meant to die and the “new man” who is Christ Jesus is meant to live more and more in us. At the funeral Mass, when they place the pall over the casket, it is a reminder of what we want for all of us. We want the King to look and see us completely clothed in the wedding garment, completely clothed in Christ Jesus.
In all of us, there is a fear and a resistance to letting our old selves die and to allowing Christ to live in us. We have a hidden fear that somehow, we will lose something if we allow ourselves to die to self so that Christ can live in us. We think that we know better. This is where the Sacred Liturgy can teach us. It teaches us to submit ourselves to something bigger than ourselves. It teaches us that if we clothe ourselves in Christ, we lose nothing, and we experience an incredible and previously unknown freedom. To clothe ourselves in Christ enables us to bring joy to the Heart of the King, to the Heart of our Heavenly Father. When the King comes into the banquet hall, what will bring him the greatest joy is if he sees us clothed completely in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Both in the Sacred Liturgy and in life itself, may we all strive to die to self so that when the King arrives, he sees the happiest of all sights–all of us clothed completely in Christ.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. David Barnes