This post is written with gratitude to God Who has allowed me to serve my parents in their old age (they were married 65 years ago this day!).
“You will say to me: Explain to us what is this wedding garment? Beyond all doubt it is the garment only the good wear; those who are to remain at the feast, and who are to be saved for that feast to which none of the bad come; conducted there by the Lord’s grace: These possess the wedding garment. Let us then, my brethren, seek among the faithful those who possess something the bad have not; and this will be the ‘wedding garment.’
If we say the Sacraments; you can see how they are shared in common by good and bad.
Is it baptism? No doubt without baptism no one can come to God: but not every one who receives baptism comes to God. I cannot therefore look on baptism as the nuptial garment; that is, the sacrament itself; a garment which I see on the good and see on the bad.
The altar, perhaps? Or That which is received at the altar. We see that many eat of It, and eat and drink judgement to themselves.
What then is it? Fasting? The wicked also fast.
Is it running to the church? The wicked run there too.
Is it working miracles then? Not only do good and bad work miracles, but at times not even the good work them. In the Old Testament we saw how the magicians of Pharaoh worked miracles, while the Israelites did not (Exod. vii). Among the Israelites only Moses and Aaron worked miracles; the rest did not; but they saw them, and feared, and believed. Were Pharaoh’s magicians working miracles more worthy than the people of Israel, who were unable to work them; though they were the chosen people of God? Hear what the Apostle says; of the Church itself: ‘Are all prophets? Are all workers of miracles? Do all speak with tongues? (I Cor. xii. 30).
What therefore is this nuptial garment? Here is the nuptial garment: ‘Now, the end of the commandment,’ says the Apostle, ‘is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith’ (I Tim. i. 5). This is the Nuptial Garment. Not any charity; for often they who seem to love each other are men who share an evil conscience. They who join together to rob, who do evil together, who have a common love of sinful spectacles, who delight together in the chariot races and gladiatorial combats, such as these for the most part love each other. But in them there is no charity, from a pure heart, a good conscience, and from faith unfeigned. This is the charity of the Nuptial Garment. ‘If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, but have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal’ (I Cor. xiii. i). They who had only ‘tongues’ came and they were asked: Why have you come in here not having on a wedding garment? ‘If I should have prophecy,’ he says, ‘and should know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.’ These are the wonders of men who oftentimes do not possess the Nuptial Garment. If I have all these things, he says, and have not Christ, I am nothing. ‘I,’ he says, ‘am nothing.’
Is the gift of prophecy then nothing? Is knowledge of the mysteries nothing? It is not these gifts that are nothing: but I, if I have them, and have not charity, I am nothing. How many gifts profit us nothing without this one gift? If I have not charity, and yet should give alms in abundance to the poor, and confess unto blood, unto the stake, the name of Christ, such things can be done from vain glory, and be nothing. And so since such things can be done from love of vain glory, and not from the most enriching charity which is the love of God, he goes on to name them; and let you hear them. ‘If I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.’ Here then is the Wedding Garment. Examine yourselves; if you possess it, you shall be without fear at the banquet of the Lord.”
CALL TO ACTION: Recognize that those outside the one true Catholic Church are not part of the good nor the bad mentioned above; pray for their conversion.
Source: Quote from "The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers" (St. Augustine's Sermon for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost -- "The Wedding Garment: Meditation," Volume IV, pages 220-222; Henry Regnery Company (copyright 1963); Imprimatur: E. Morrogh Bernard, Vic. Gen. Westmonasterii; Nihil Obstat: Carolus Davis, S.T.L., Censor Deputatus
Photo by Alexander Mass