The bride is the Church, and the marriage-feast is our Lord’s spiritual union with the Church: the invited guests are those who are called to believe. Those who accept the invitation are those who are spiritually united to our Lord, and who have a share in the treasures of His grace. Those guests who were first invited are the Jews, who were called by God’s servants (i. e. His prophets down to St. John the Baptist) to prepare themselves by penance for the coming of the Messias. They did not obey the call; for a kingdom, the condition of belonging to which was penance, did not please them. Then God, when the work of Redemption was completed, and the Church founded, sent out other servants, namely His apostles and disciples, to warn the Jews that “all things were now ready”, and that now was the time to enter His kingdom. But, sunk as they were in carnal notions, given over to avarice, pleasure-seeking and the love of dominion, the Jews had no relish for the idea of a kingdom of grace and salvation, and paid no heed to the urgent call; and many of them — the Scribes and Pharisees — persecuted, maltreated and killed God’s servants for daring to deliver God’s message. The apostles were imprisoned, scourged &c., and St. Stephen was stoned to death, as you will see. Then Almighty God sent the Roman army to execute His judgments on the ungrateful people. The Romans killed a million of Jews and destroyed and burnt their city of Jerusalem. Then God sent His apostles among the Gentiles who had hitherto been wandering about, faithless and homeless, in the highways of the world, and invited them to the feast. These accepted His invitation, are still accepting it, and will go on doing so till, at the end of time, the Church is “filled with guests”.
In the first part of the parable our Lord relates in a few words the history of His kingdom on earth, the Church militant, up to the time of His return. He foretold that Israel, taken as a whole, would reject the Gospel, and would therefore be rejected by God; but that the Gentiles would believe, and would, little by little, be received into His Church. It is only when the wedding is completely furnished with guests that the real marriage-feast, of which the second part of the parable treats, can take place. Eternal happiness is to be understood by this marriage-feast. This, however, must be preceded by the judgment , which will prove each one, whether he has on his wedding-garment, i. e. sanctifying grace. Whosoever is not found in a state of grace will be shut out of the kingdom of heaven, and cast into the exterior darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Only one man is cited in the parable as being found without a wedding-garment, to show that not even one will escape the test. To obtain salvation it is not enough to believe and to be members of the Church: we must be clothed with, and be able to present, before the judgment-seat of God, the robe of innocence, sanctifying grace, which we received in holy Baptism, and which we must either have preserved, or been re-clothed with in the Sacrament of Penance.
