In the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 6) we are told: “And why do you worry about clothing? Learn from the lilies of the field – see how they grow without any effort and without weaving their garment […] If God clothes even the grass of the field like this, which grows today and is burnt tomorrow, will he not much more clothe you?”

In this week’s Gospel (Mt 22) we hear about another kind of garment. We hear about the man who appears at the wedding feast not wearing the proper wedding garment and, as a result, is cast out.

Our first reaction to this parable might be: Is he not unjustly treated? Maybe he didn’t have the means to purchase a garment but still wanted to go to the wedding? As it is so often with the pictures we are given in the bible, also this one I not about the conditions we meet in the material world. It is not a parable about clothes or about money. On the contrary – there seems to have been a custom in the ancient world that if you were invited to a celebration the proper garment to wear would have been given to you as a present, too.

The truth is: We have all been invited to the wedding, the union between this world and the spiritual realm. And we have all been given our wedding garments. They consist of the spiritual world’s vast grace that has been bestowed on us in ‘the deed of life and death on Golgotha’.

There are plenty of moments in our life where we are sure that we have lost both the invitation and the wedding garment. In those moment when the true knowledge of who we are and what has been given to us forsakes us, it is good to just have faith. Faith in, that the grace we have been given is there, even if we don’t see it. Faith in, that just like the lilies of the field can have the certainty that God will provide for them – so can we. If we want to go to the wedding, if we go toward the spirit with respect in our hearts, committed to the truth, mindful of the sacrifice that was made for our sakes in ‘the deed of life and death on Golgotha’ – and with love – then we have the wedding garment that we need. We will then not stand speechless before his countenance, we will be admitted into the light.

This contemplation is from Rev. Contreras inspired by Matthew