Oct 16 Mon
The Christian virtues are the fibers that make up the wedding garment.
The king went in to see the guests, and noticed a man who was not wearing the wedding garment; and he said to him, "Friend, how did you get in here without wearing a wedding garment?" But he could not answer.
He had to fulfill only one condition: he must wear the simple clean white robe, which was distributed free at the entrance, and which each one placed over the garment he wore. In this way the inner joy and festivity was expressed.
What is the garment that God requires to take part in the wedding feast of his Son?
It is this: the love that proceeds from a pure heart, an upright conscience, and a sincere faith (1 Tim 1:5). This is the wedding garment.”
Thus, we should help people to develop solid virtues, to preserve the enthusiasm of their first encounter with Jesus, and move them to constantly improve. In a word, they must be taught to cultivate a solid Christian life.
"Interior life is like the wedding garment spoken of in the Gospel. The fabric is made up of each of the norms or practices of piety which, like fibers, give strength to the cloth. A garment with a tear is despised, even if the rest is in good condition. If you pray, if you work..., but you are not sacrificed –or the other way around– your interior life is not, so to speak, complete."
"No one is excluded from salvation, if he freely yields to the loving demands of Christ." Outside of Him, there is only desolation and shadows of death.
Being gratuitous, the divine invitation is an urgent and imperative call. The Lord addresses it to all men, imposing only one condition on them: that they clothe themselves with the merits of his Son as with a wedding garment.
Jesus concludes by recalling our personal responsibility when we face the gift of grace. "You know perfectly well the development of the parable. Many are invited but few are chosen (Mt 22:14). All are called, but there are many who do not want to enter the banquet hall, or come without putting on the wedding garment that the Master himself provides."
No one ever lacks the help of Heaven, but everyone must welcome God’s call with a personal response. Let us follow the advice of St. Josemaría: "Have constant recourse to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God and Mother of humanity: and She will attract, with the gentleness of a Mother, the love of God to the souls you deal with, so that they may decide –within their ordinary work, in their profession– to be witnesses of Jesus Christ."
Video: