Inheritance

As befits a parable concerning the Last Things, let us begin at the end. Structurally speaking, the twist at the story's conclusion is its most prominent feature. A king has prepared a marriage feast to which all people, even those who esteem him very little, are invited. Then, another guest list is prepared inviting "as many as you can find." That is, no one is left out. Then comes the twist: "few are chosen."

If "a chosen few" turn out to be the only real guests, then why has the longest guest list in history — everyone in the world — been compiled?

In addition, an element of suspense is introduced. The complex challenge in preparing any large feast (this one is going to feed everyone in the world) is timing. And this great feast, which has been prepared perhaps over a course of days or weeks, is ready. Even a ten-minute delay would ruin it. In St. Luke's recollection of the parable, the king announces,

In our Apostles Convent translation, we hear it twice: at the beginning and at the middle. "All things are ready," the King emphasizes. The time is now, not later.

Thus, two surprising dramas are placed before us. First, we have the the two guest lists, and, second, the feast must be served now though no one is ready. The former we might call the chosen few, the latter, the acceptable season. We know these phrases. They are primary themes in the story of our salvation.

The first Jesus articulates in flinty tones:

The second recurs throughout the New Testament. Here is a sample from Second Corinthians:

"The acceptable season" (the Greek is kairos) points to the moment of God's favor, the opportunity of our salvation. Yet, as with our own lives, the guests are not ready.

The overarching subject today is the Last Judgment. On the earthly level, life goes on in its ramshackle way: "and [they] went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business" (Mt 22:5). In the wider view, the many poor languish beneath hedges (in St. Luke's version) and walk aimlessly down highways and byways. We might entitle the scene, "Life Goes On." But on the Heavenly level, life does not go on. Indeed, life is about to stop. "Thou fool!" the angel of death tells the wealthy farmer. "This night thy soul shall be required of thee!" (Lu 12:20). In this morning's Gospel lesson, every soul will be required, for lying just ahead of us are the Last Things. And this King is "settling accounts."

For the Prophets the great King and His marriage always have to do with the marriage of Heaven and earth, the union of God with His people. The intimacy of God's love and His provision for us is figured in the feast, so great that it is able to feed everyone, "as many as you can find." Tragically, this marriage, as the Prophets recount, is adulterous, for God's unsteady people cannot manage to keep their vows. Indeed, they treat Him "spitefully," even killing His servants (Mt 22:6).

The detail of the King destroying their city calls another city to mind, also in St. Matthew's Gospel. The Lord's servants (His Apostles) are sent to bless the world with God's favor. In each household, Jesus instructs, "Let your peace come upon it,"

Every household has been invited to the King's wedding feast, we might say. But if Divine blessing be not received in reverence, then let sulfur and fire rain down on their city (Gen 19:24-25).

The mention of these cities from Genesis reminds us of another place created to be God's betrothed: Eden .... and, following that debacle, still another marriage, with the renewed earth of Noah and his family. In all these places, God's betrothed would betray Him, and all would be destroyed, for they treated the King spitefully.

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We are God's family, born to this birthright and bearing His Image. If a great marriage in the family is to be celebrated, then each of us will surely receive an invitation. All are expected to attend. Some of us might take it lightly (Mt 22:5), perhaps not even bothering to mail the stamped RSVP envelope. Nonetheless, Father God has done His part ensuring that each of us has been granted a place, for He seeks to bless us. Like any Father, He hopes for the best in us. His highest hope is that we mature, realizing fully the promise that lay within us at birth. Is not this the way with all parents?

In this, lies the heartbreak of parenting. Our parents yearn always to bless us, but they cannot bless everything we do, as with the prodigal son and his father. Indeed, the parent's love must include "tough love." As we read in the Letter to the Hebrews:

The vocation of parenting never ends. And a mother or father can never know what is next. With this truth in mind, we are ready to engage the riddle of the guest list. Why does the King not simply invite "the chosen few"? Would not this have avoided all of the problems? They would certainly be ready. The feast would be served in its perfection. Why does He not simply invite the chosen few? Because He does not know who they are. No one knows who they are. For neither God nor we can know what we will do next .... as anyone who has given in to impulse can tell you. The only remedy is to invite everyone, "both bad and good," for no one knows which will be bad and which will be good.

For Orthodox Christians, the aerial tollhouses come to mind. For ours is a fluid situation. Our goodness is not a settled thing, nor is our wickedness (thanks be to God!) Every one of us must strive and guard our hearts every minute .... till the last! The tollhouses represent the last, our last hope, the last chance. I follow the saint for whom I was named in seeing the tollhouses, not literally, but as a concept. I do not picture us lining up in queues scrambling to gather all the coins we can. With St. Columba I picture this being simply the last chance. St. Columba witnessed a ship going down offshore taking the monks on-board with her. Next, he beheld a spiritual battle in mid-air as angels struggled against the demons who made claims on the monks' souls. For judgment is not settled until it is settled. And the demons' just claims (for demons have a perfect memory) represented by the "tollhouses" ....

These are the final trials we face. What will be the outcome? It all depends on what we do. That is the point of Dismas, the good thief, and Gestas, the bad thief. All is in flux. Nothing is settled. And everything will depend finally on the content of our character.

"Wait a second!" the faithful Christian exclaims. "It all depends on what we will do? Doesn't God already know who is good and who is bad?" Or let me state this more directly: am I suggesting that God's perfect knowledge is not perfect?

Actually, I am saying the opposite. I am pointing to the superabundance of God's knowledge. God is able to see the plenitude of all the paths before us, all of which we are already in by virtue of knowing about them. They are present to us in our brains. Even slender human reason begins to bring this mind-bending subject into focus: the "many-worlds interpretation" of quantum mechanics holds that the "multiverse" is "composed of a quantum superposition of an infinite or undefinable amount or number of increasingly divergent, non-communicating parallel universes or quantum worlds" (Wikipedia).

I don't if this will make things any clearer, but let me share that thirty-four years ago, when I read The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose (Stephen Hawking's teacher), it all made sense to me. Penrose said that each electron in our brains is in all states simultaneously. It is not until we "act," that the electron freezes into a single state. What he is saying that all thoughts are possible for us (within the fund our knowledge). Have you ever been there? Have you ever stood on the brink of going in any direction? We behold an abundance before us that is hard to define. Which one will I choose? Which thought will I think .... or do or say? What we are perceiving in the midst of this vast abundance of all possibilities traces back to Penrose's electron which is in (as physicists say today) a superposition. (A mathematician would instantly recognizes that this a superset, the set of all possible sets.)

God sees the superposition of every electron in our brains. You see, I do not say that God's knowledge is impoverished. Rather I say that God's knowledge is rich beyond our comprehension. He sees everything that we are about to do. He stands with us on that brink.

You see, He has made a gift to us, a Divine faculty possessed only by Himself and the angels: free will. I can choose to be like God, or I can choose to be a demon, which by the way are two states of the same "electron" (so to speak) called "an angel."

God sees this, and He waits. None of these states become an actuality until we choose it. And God sees that it is precisely human choice which causes one path to crystallize. This is His design. It follows that every destination is ours as we sit at the tollhouse .... until it isn't.

The King invites everyone in the world to His wedding feast to see what we will do. At birth, we received an invitation to the unending feast of God's goodness. We were called into God's marvelous garden. As the Lord Jesus points out, all around us God has made provision (Mt 6:25-35). Good things spring out of the ground, and fragrant trees hang heavy with nourishing fruit. And of this feast there is no end. To each one, God the King is present. He is present to us. We are present before Him. We live in the sight of God. Some of us will behave badly as Eve did in the Garden of Eden or as Noah and his family did on the renewed earth. Others will conduct themselves nobly. And all will have begun with the same blessing and with the same unlimited range of choices before them. What will we do? That is up to us.

Perhaps here, we are prepared for the troubling detail of the wedding garment. You know, in Sunday School or CCD, this all seemed so unfair. But let us attend to our Gospel lesson. The parable began considering the wealthy and their many possessions. The poor, however, do not have splendid possessions .... except one. They possess the greatest of all riches, the pearl of greatest price. You would sell any field in order to obtain it. They have been appointed stewards of their eternal and immortal souls.

As that wealthy farmer with his barns learns at the final hour (Lu 12:20), the value of the soul exceeds anything that a rich man might claim. And our wedding garment signifies the purity of that God-entrusted soul. Why do I say purity? Because that is what He gave us when He placed this gift into our hands. That was its state. And now He invites us to the wedding feast. Each of, therefore, has a wedding garment.

After hearing it once, who could ever forget this lament?

The King has invited all the earth, we might say. And then He watches. He watches every guest He has summoned. His gaze pierces to the division of soul and spirit and discerns the thoughts of the heart. And this is mainly His concern: the content of our hearts and souls and minds. If these should contain "the filth of the daughters of Zion" (Isa 4:4) to borrow from Isaiah, if anyone has brought these such defiled thoughts into the purity of the wedding feast, then that one has already committed adultery (Mt 5:28). And the King will command,

Here on earth, we awaken at our births to an interior garden of innocence and goodness, Our hearts and souls and minds so pure. We seek to love and to be loved. We seek what is good and right. Our tender hearts are sickened at all that is evil or unfair.

Tragically, some of us become fascinated by evil or see injustice as an opportunity. Some us become lost in this wickedness, become lost in selfish gain until we are no longer sensitive to filth. And our interior garden? What is to become of it? All too quickly, blossoms wilt, and rot runs swiftly through its defiled soil.

We have been invited to the Wedding Feast of the King .... all of us. And if we have guarded our souls and hearts, we will discover that we are the apple of His eye, even the betrothed. And all we need do is .... nothing, except to rejoice. We give thanks for His love and bountiful provision. And His only requirement is that we be what He created us to be. For this is His highest hope: that we be with Him forever and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.