Lent with Bossuet – Meditations on the Gospel (27)

“The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king, who made a marriage for his son” (Mt. 22:2).

Jesus Christ was the Bridegroom at this wedding: “He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom,” said St. John the Baptist, in speaking of Him (Jn. 3:29). It is He Who had come to wed His Church, to shelter it through His blood, to endow it with His kingdom, and to bring it into the society of His glory.

He gives a great banquet where He gives His sacred word to be the nourishment of souls. And He gives Himself to all His people as the bread of eternal life.

Those who were invited and who refused to come, were the Jews to whom He gave notice Himself, and He sent word through His apostles that the hour of the feast had come, that they come promptly, or that they call others.

This concerned the Jews, but it concerns us also. We are now the invited ones, and we must find out what prevents men from coming to this celestial feast.