Below are three of Fr. Abbot's homilies: for the 14^th and 16^th Sundays after Pentecost, and for the Nativity of the Mother of God, 2008.

The Gospel of Matthew was written mainly for a Jewish Christian readership. Therefore we find in this Gospel a selection of Jesus’ teachings that have a more direct bearing on the continuity (and contrast) between Judaism and Christianity—more so than, say, Luke, who was writing for Gentiles who would not be very familiar with the history of God’s dealings with his Chosen People.

Today’s Gospel reading (Mt. 22:1-14) is one of Jesus’ many parables of the Kingdom of Heaven, most of which have something to do with the final judgment, and some of which have to do with the Jews’ rejection of the Gospel and the Gentiles acceptance of it. This particular parable has to do with both.

The parable begins thus: "The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son…" We’re already looking toward the end here, for Scripture refers to the heavenly celebration of the victory over satan and the powers of death as "the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev. 19:6-9), at which the righteous are gathered for an eternally joyful feast.

The King in this parable is, of course, God the Father, and his Son is our Lord Jesus Christ. The King first sent out an invitation to his favorite people, the Jews. "But," said Jesus in the parable, "they would not come." OK, God wasn’t going to be deterred by this initial brush-off. So the parable goes on: "Again, he sent other servants." This time He does not send a mere invitation, but a fuller description of what he is offering, along with an additional entreaty: "Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast."

There’s something of a parallel here between this Gospel and the one we heard last week, about the tenants in the vineyard, to whom God sent his servants. In both cases these servants represent the prophets, who bring to God’s people his word, his invitation to faithfulness to the covenant He has made with them.

There are two different reactions to the divine invitation in this parable, both of them bad. One group of those invited simply made light of the invitation and came up with various excuses why they weren’t going to come. But the others actually mistreated and even killed those who brought the invitation, as actually happened to most of the prophets who spoke God’s word to his people. The King was understandably angry about that, so He destroyed those evildoers and burned their city. This may be a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem a few decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection. By that time most of the Jews that did accept Christ had to flee Jerusalem due to persecution, and the ones that remained were either those who made light of Jesus’ invitation to faith in Him, or those who shamefully treated or killed his servants, like St Stephen and the other early martyrs.

So, the invitation to the wedding banquet of the Son of God was first made to his chosen people. The majority of them rejected this invitation, but that doesn’t mean that the wedding was called off. It only means that the invitation would now be extended to those who were not originally invited. The wedding was still ready, as the parable indicates. But now the King told his servants: "Go into the thoroughfares and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find." These would be the Gentiles, for those "in the streets" would be those outside the sacred precincts of the temple, where only Jews were allowed to be present. It’s interesting also to note that the servants of the King invited all they could find, "both bad and good," which is what you might expect when indiscriminately gathering people together.

But the parable takes a rather unexpected twist here. It seems at first that the Lord, after calling those whom He should have expected to be among the righteous—and being rejected by them—would then not only make the call universal, but also accept everyone regardless of their level of faith or morality. But that’s not quite the case.

After having made his general invitation to all who would come, the King looked around at the guests and spotted one not wearing the customary wedding garment—and He asked him: "How did you get in here?" We might wish at first to come to the defense of the poor slouch, saying to the King: "Well, you just called him in off the street. Did you expect him to be wearing a tuxedo?" But, as we’ll discover every time, the fault was not the King’s. In those days, special wedding garments were provided at the door for all the guests, so that no one could have any reason not to be wearing one. If you were found to be without one, it could only mean that you deliberately rejected the offer of the garment. If we look again to the wedding feast of the Lamb, we see that his bride is clothed in "fine linen, bright and pure," and it further states that this fine linen is "the righteous deeds of the saints." To reject the offer of righteousness from God is to render oneself incapable of righteous deeds.

We’ve seen the Jew/Gentile dimension of this parable, and now we’ve come to the dimension of the final judgment. When the servants of the King have gathered together all the people, both good and bad, they are brought before Him. We read in other places in Matthew’s Gospel that God’s servants, the angels, will "gather his elect from the four winds" (24:31), and also that they "will gather out of his kingdom all sinners and evildoers" (13:41). The elect and the evildoers are the good and the bad that were invited from the streets and ushered into the hall of the King.

Now the parable states that "the King came in to look at the guests," and that’s when He saw the man who had refused the wedding garment, obviously one of the "bad" from the streets. The King looking at the guests refers to the judgment they must endure under his divine scrutiny. Things are very different in the present age—when the Lord generously extends his invitation—and in the day of judgment, when the Lord expects an account of our lives. Notice in the parable that when the invitation first came out, everyone made excuses or just ignored it altogether. But when the man without the wedding garment was questioned, it is clear that the time for excuse-making was finished. He didn’t even try to make an excuse; it simply says he was speechless. And so he was cast out of the wedding feast, into the misery and pain of the "outer darkness."

This reaction to judgment reminds me of the near-death experience of a certain priest who, when his soul temporarily left his body after a serious injury in a car accident, was brought before the judgment seat of God and learned that his sins had earned for him everlasting punishment in Hell. The interesting thing is that he didn’t try to defend himself—for who can argue with Truth Himself?—and didn’t even feel rage or terror. He was like the man without the wedding garment: he was speechless, for he knew he had no excuse, and he accepted the just sentence because he knew he deserved it. (Thank God, Our Lady interceded for him and he was allowed to return to this life and was given another chance to repent—otherwise we never would have heard of his experience!).

So the Lord concludes his parable by saying: "Many are called, but few are chosen." Now this does not mean that some are irrevocably predestined to Heaven and others to Hell. It does mean that God, in his great generosity, calls all of us to the wedding feast of his Son. He calls both the good and the bad. But all, whether good or bad, have to accept the conditions for entry into the King’s banquet hall, symbolized in the parable by the wedding garment. As I said once before, the call is God’s but the choice is ours. Many are called—God’s invitation is universal—but few are chosen, simply because few choose to accept the wedding garment, to accept God’s terms for being received into the wedding feast. His terms are his commandments and everything his Son has revealed to us and required of us in the Gospels. Imagine our thinking that we could get away with anything in this life, could somehow sneak into the eternal wedding feast. Then imagine our horror when the King looks at us and says, in the presence of all the other guests: "How did you get in here?" Believe me, we’ll be speechless and without excuse.

We may think that this is a hard teaching, but the Lord can only speak the truth, and if the truth hurts or even frightens us sometimes, so be it. Better to learn our lessons now than to be horribly surprised on judgment day. Everything that the Lord says to us, even the hard words, are said out of love. It is as St Paul wrote in today’s epistle, after having previously written to reproach the Corinthians for their excesses and disobedience: "I wrote… not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love I have for you" (2Cor. 2:4).

Jesus tells us his parables, even those that warn of the condemnation of the unfaithful, not to cause us pain but to let us know how much He loves us and earnestly desires our salvation. Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper how He longed to eat that Passover with them. Well, He’s telling us now that He longs to have us share in his eternal wedding feast, clothed in the fine linen of righteous deeds—the fruit of saying "yes" to his gracious invitation.

A priest I once knew, who liked to receive the co-operation of his parishioners, used to have a bumper sticker on his car that read, "Volunteers go to Heaven." On the flip side, we might entitle today’s Gospel, "Slackers go to Hell" (Mt. 25:14-30). This particular Gospel appearing on the Sunday liturgical calendar is quite rare. It happened this year only because Easter was so terribly early, and it slipped in just before the Sundays of the Cross and the changing over to the cycle of Luke. This probably won’t happen again for another 150 years or so; therefore we really must pay attention to the message of this Gospel today!

In the epistle for today (2Cor. 6:1-10), St Paul urges us "not to accept the grace of God in vain." Now how could we accept God’s grace in vain? Well, the Gospel tells us, for one of the three who received God’s grace ended up being thrown forever into the outer darkness, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. We need therefore to learn what to do and what not to do with the grace of God.

This Gospel is another parable of the Kingdom and, as I said two weeks ago, these parables often have to do with the final reckoning and our eternal destiny. It begins with a certain master going on a journey and entrusting his wealth to his servants, to trade with until he returns. Now obviously the Master is Christ, whose journey was his ascent to Heaven after his resurrection, and whose return to settle accounts is his Second Coming. Let’s see what He says He’s going to do.

There are three representative servants. To one the Master gave five talents, to the second He gave two, and to the third He gave one. The "talent" here, at least for English speakers, has a double meaning. Originally the talent was simply a unit of currency weighing a certain amount. But in English the word "talent" also means an ability or endowment by which someone is able to accomplish some task or produce some creative work. It is the latter meaning we ought to employ here, for it isn’t usually money that God gives us to work with but rather spiritual gifts He expects us to use for his glory and to accomplish his will.

Let us notice that God does not distribute his gifts equally. Five, two, and one were given. Recall the parable of the workers in the vineyard, who received equal pay for unequal times of work. The Master insists that He is free to do with his money what He pleases, and if He wants to be more generous to some than to others, that’s just what He’ll do! So we learn here that the Lord is sovereign and free, that He is not bound by our standards or sensibilities when He carries out his will on the earth. He has said his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts, and his word is true!

But God is not unjust by giving unequal graces to his servants. For as we see in the parable, He did not require the same from each of them. As Jesus said elsewhere, more is required of those to whom more is given. When the second servant brought forth two talents, the Master did not say, "Hey, the other guy brought five; what’s wrong with you?" The Master was satisfied with a smaller return because He made a smaller investment. So the one who received five and returned an extra five, and the one who received two and returned an extra two, were both warmly welcomed into the joy of their Lord.

The point is first that God has given all of his servants spiritual gifts, in the measure that He alone has chosen. The point is also that God requires all of his servants to exercise these gifts, to bear fruit, and to bring the fruit of their labors to God on the day He comes to settle accounts. It is not enough to return to God what is his, as the lazy and wicked servant did. He received a gift from his Master but hid it in the ground because he somehow resented the fact that his Master profited from his servants’ labor. But the Master shows that He would have been satisfied even with a small return, commensurate to the small gift, but that He was not satisfied with no return at all. He therefore called his servant "wicked and slothful."

We see here that laziness is very displeasing to the Lord. In fact, the lazy man was condemned to the "outer darkness," which is another name for Hell. I never cease to be amazed that there are still people, even Christian people, who somehow think that they will not be held accountable for their deeds, or lack of deeds, when they come before the judgment seat of God. They seem to value their own opinions on the matter more highly than they value the word of God. They content themselves with the fact that God is merciful, yet the distorted way they understand mercy ends up actually rejecting large portions of God’s own revelation. Whenever we hear Jesus speak in the Gospels, we darn well better believe that his word is the truth—and if He says that faithful and industrious servants go to Heaven and that lazy and slothful servants go to Hell, that is exactly what is going to happen! If we don’t believe his words, we have no business calling ourselves Christians. Jesus clearly says in the Gospel of John that the one who loves Him is the one who keeps his commandments. We may think we love Him, and we may say we love Him, but if we don’t actually keep his commandments, it will be proven on judgment day that we were deluding ourselves unto our own ruin.

Let us look again at the wicked servant. He was not actually condemned for positively doing evil deeds. He was condemned simply for not doing good deeds! There’s no evidence that he was a murderer or an adulterer, or some other sort of manifest evildoer. He simply didn’t do what the Master asked him to do. He didn’t use the gift for the honor and good pleasure of his Lord.

Now let’s look at the faithful servants and try to put ourselves in their position, and in their relationship with the Master. The Master gave them talents and a command to work with them until he returned (this command is explicit in the parallel in Luke, but implicit here in Matthew). So far so good. The Master doesn’t start out with threats, because He trusts his servants. He doesn’t say, "work with these talents I’ve given you, or else I’ll tear you to pieces when I return." What He wants them to do is to multiply their good works simply out of love for Him and the desire to please Him. And He blesses them abundantly for doing just that.

It is only when a servant is found to be habitually lazy and self-centered that he is dealt with sternly. We might imagine that if these were servants of the same master, they knew each other and therefore had some communication with each other. I can imagine the two faithful servants urging the lazy one to do some productive work before the Master’s return. If he really was wicked and lazy as the Gospel says, I can imagine him responding with irritation and scorn: "Well, you two sycophantic do-gooders can increase the profits of that man who reaps where he doesn’t sow, but I’ve got better things to do!" "OK," they reply, "but don’t forget that our master is coming back, and he will expect some return on his investment."

The heedless servant eventually saw the other side of the master when it was time to settle accounts. He thought he could get away with giving the master his talent back, but the master would have none of it and punished him severely. In St Paul’s words, he had received the grace of his Lord in vain.

It should be with us as with the faithful servants: our first approach to the Lord should be the grateful reception of his gifts, and then our diligent labors to bear fruit, simply because we love the Lord and wish to please Him. We know He’s coming back and we know we are going to be accountable for what He has given us. So we unselfishly work and even sacrifice for Him, so that He will be pleased and will welcome us into his eternal joy. That is, in fact, why we are here in the first place, to serve the Lord faithfully on Earth so as to be welcomed gloriously into Heaven forever. It is only when we are habitually lazy, selfish, or presumptuous, that we have good reason to fear the Master’s wrath. And not taking seriously the word of the Lord puts us squarely in the camp of the wicked and slothful servants.

St Paul gives us a brief description of the ways he multiplied the talents given him; clearly he did not receive the grace of God in vain. It’s interesting that the full verse reads: "Working together with Him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain." This "working together" with the Lord is the way that grace bears fruit in us, the way that our talents increase unto the glory of God. The Apostle multiplied his talents through "great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, vigils, hunger"—and, more positively, he goes on: "by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God." We can imagine how warmly this faithful servant was welcomed into his Master’s joy, after a life of such dedicated and selfless labors in the service of Christ.

So let us first realize that God has blessed us abundantly with the "talents" of grace, some more, some less. But regardless of the original gift, we are required to work hard to bear fruit for the Lord, to have something to show when He returns to settle accounts. Hell is for slackers, but Heaven is for the good and faithful servants who love the Lord and serve Him will all their hearts, will all their strength. May we thus enter the eternal joy of our Lord!

On this blessed feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, we hear in our liturgical services bits and pieces of the story of her conception and birth. But today, in lieu of my own unworthy ramblings, I’d like to give you the whole story (though slightly edited!), from the main source of our information about this mystery: the Proto-Gospel of James, a so-called "apocryphal gospel," an early Christian account of some of the events not recounted in the canonical Scriptures. It has relative merit as a testimony to the faith of the early Church, as do many other Christian writings, but the Church has not considered it Holy Scripture because we cannot be infallibly sure of all its details.

Nevertheless, under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church has considered at least some of its basic elements to be worthy of belief. This has always been part of the task of the Church: to discover and proclaim the truth, and to reject falsehood. So she has judiciously drawn upon this document for the celebration of this feast of Our Lady.

The following account most likely has some legendary elements in it, so in that sense it has something of the character of a historical novel: it is based on history, that is, it is essentially a true story, but it is embellished where the details are no longer known. With that little caveat, let us listen to the story of the birth of the Mother of God.

"In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly; and he brought his offerings double, saying: 'There shall be of my superabundance to all the people, and there shall be the offering for my forgiveness to the Lord for a propitiation for me.’ For the great day of the Lord was at hand, and the sons of Israel were bringing their offerings. And there stood over against him Rubim, saying: 'It is not right for you first to bring your offerings, because you have not produced children in Israel.’ And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and went away to the registers of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: 'I shall see the registers of the twelve tribes of Israel, as to whether I alone have not produced children in Israel.’ And he searched, and found that all the righteous had raised up children in Israel. And he called to mind the patriarch Abraham, that in the last days God gave him a son, Isaac.

"Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: 'I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.’

"And his wife Anna mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations, saying: 'I shall bewail my widowhood; I shall bewail my childlessness.’ And the great day of the Lord was at hand; and Judith her maid-servant said: 'How long will you humiliate your soul? Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand, and it is unlawful for you to mourn. But take this head-band, which the woman that made it gave to me; for it is not proper that I should wear it, because I am a maid-servant, and it has a royal appearance.’

"And Anna said: 'Depart from me; for such things are not for me, and the Lord has brought me very low…’ And Anna was grieved exceedingly, but she put off her garments of mourning, and cleaned her head, and put on her wedding garments, and about the ninth hour went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah and gave her a son Isaac.’

"And gazing towards the heavens, she saw a sparrow’s nest in the laurel, and made a lamentation in herself, saying: 'Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me?—because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the birds of the heavens, because even the birds of the heavens are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season and blesses You, O Lord.’

"And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: 'Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.’ And Anna said: 'As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and the child shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life.’ And behold, two angels came, saying to her: 'Behold, Joachim your husband is coming with his flocks.’ For an angel of the Lord had gone down to him, saying: 'Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for behold, your wife Anna shall conceive.’

"So Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: 'Bring me here ten she-lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred goats for all the people.’ And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck, saying: 'Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for behold the widow no longer a widow, and I, the childless, shall conceive.’ And Joachim rested the first day in his house.

"And on the following day he brought his offerings… And Joachim said: 'Now I know that the Lord has been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins.’ And he went down from the temple of the Lord justified, and departed to his own house. And her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: 'What have I brought forth?’ And she said: 'A girl.’ And said Anna: 'My soul has been magnified this day.’ And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her name Mary.

"And the child grew strong day by day; and when she was six months old, her mother set her on the ground to try whether she could stand, and she walked seven steps and came into her bosom; and she snatched her up, saying: 'As the Lord my God lives, you shall not walk on this earth until I bring thee into the temple of the Lord. And she made a sanctuary in her bed-chamber, and allowed nothing common or unclean to pass through her…

"And when she was a year old, Joachim made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel. And Joachim brought the child to the priests; and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations.’ And all the people said: 'So be it, so be it, amen.’ And he brought her to the chief priests; and they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever.’ And her mother snatched her up, and took her into the sanctuary of her bed-chamber, and gave her the breast.

"And Anna made a song to the Lord God, saying: 'I will sing a song to the Lord my God, for He has looked upon me, and has taken away the reproach of mine enemies; and the Lord hath given the fruit of His righteousness, singular in its kind, and richly endowed before Him. Who will tell the sons of Rubim that Anna nurses a child? Hear, hear, you twelve tribes of Israel, that Anna nurses.’ And she laid Mary to rest in the bed-chamber of her sanctuary, and went out and ministered unto them. And when the supper was ended, they went down rejoicing, and glorifying the God of Israel."

Let us also go down rejoicing, for the all-pure Virgin Mary is born—she who would give birth by the power of the Most High to the Son of God, our Savior and Redeemer, who will bring us to Paradise, where we will be reborn, as it were, immaculate and radiant, washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb, and filled with everlasting joy.

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