10/11/2020 5:36:50 AM
“ Blessed are those who have been called to the marriage feast of the Lamb ” (Rv 19:9)
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Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604)
Pope, Doctor of the Church
Homilies on the Gospel, no. 38
“ Blessed are those who have been called to the marriage feast of the Lamb ” (Rv 19:9)
You already understand the identity of this king who is father of a son who is also a king. Surely it is the one to whom the psalmist says: "O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the kings's son" (Ps 72[71]:1) (…) The Father made a marriage feast for his Son by joining the Church to him through the mystery of his incarnation. The womb of the Virgin who bore him was the bridal chamber of this bridegroom, and so the psalmist says: "He has set his tent in the sun, and he is like a bridegroom coming forth from his bridal chamber" (cf. Ps 19[18]:5-6) (…) And so he sent his servants to invite his friends to the marriage feast. He sent once, and he sent again, because first he made the prophets, and later the apostles, preachers of the Lord's incarnation. (…) Through the prophets he said that his only Son's incarnation would come about, and he proclaimed through the apostles that it had. “But they paid no heed and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.” To go to your farm is to involve yourself excessively in earthly toil; to go to your business is to long for the gain brought by our worldly activity. Neither of you take any notice of the mystery of the mystery of the Lord's incarnation and are unwilling to live in accordance with it (…) Some, and this is a more serious matter, not only decline the gift of the One calling them but even persecute those who accept it. (…) But the one who sees himself despised when he issues the invitations will not have the marriage feast of his son, the king, empty. He sends for others, because although God's word is in danger from some, it will find a place to come to rest. (…) But you, my friends, since you have already come into the house of the marriage feast, our holy Church, as a result of God's generosity, be careful lest when the King enters he find fault with some aspect of your heart's clothing.