A homily for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost in the Orthodox Church, which is based on the passage Matthew 22:1-14.
The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come… But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.
I want to focus on the wedding garment, which is an icon of the quality of the soul. When I was younger, I thought of the soul as something inside me, maybe inside my chest, somewhat synonymous with this mysterious thing we call “the heart.” Not merely the physical organ – though it includes that – but something non-physical as well.
While that’s moving in the right direction, in ancient times, people thought of the soul as filling the entire body – and not just filling the body but clothing the body as well.
When an angel, demon, or even God looks at you, the first thing they see is the state of the soul that covers you.
Is it light? is it dark? Does is smell lovely? Or is it rancid? The soul has these characteristics, and saintly Christians who repent deeply of their sins can begin to pick up on the the appearance and “odor” of the souls of others.
So, if the wedding garment is the soul, and the condition of the soul can get us forcefully removed from the eternal supper of the heavenly Kingdom, then I would assert that the formation of our soul is the most important thing we can focus on with our lives.
So, what forms the soul?
That seems to be the problem: everything has a formative effect on the soul.
There are a million little micro decisions that we make throughout the day, all of which nudge the soul toward light and beauty or toward darkness and death. Some examples:
- I’m waiting in line at the store; do I pray the Jesus Prayer… or stare absently into space letting my mind wander with every fleeting thought?
- I’ve got a few minutes in the evening before bed: do I check in with my wife and ask her how she’s doing, spending a few minutes quietly listening – or do I retreat to my phone, look at the news or whatever else?
- My alarm goes off – do I hit snooze, knowing that I’ll have to skip or shorten my morning prayers, or do I force myself to get up, to do some prostrations, and start the day properly?
- I’ve had a rough week, do I sleep in on Sunday – knowing God is forgiving – or do I push myself to be at church, knowing I can take a nap later?
- I’ve got a 30 minute drive ahead of me. Do I play music or a podcast to entertain myself – or do sit in silence, talk to God about how I’m feeling that day, and learn to be in stillness for a few minutes?
There are a million such decisions, even smaller than these, that we make throughout the day, every day.
All of them are formative – they are stitching the wedding garment that we are wearing right now and will continue to wear in the age to come.
Even our relationship with technology itself is formative. We like to think about technology as something that’s neutral, it’s “just a tool.” I’m free to use it – or not use it – however I want.
But the truth is, technology itself is formative. It doesn’t simply do things for you… but it trains what you want, what you notice, and what you’re capable (or incapable) of sitting with in silence.
We like to think of a smartphone the way we think of a hammer: a neutral tool, good or bad depending on who’s swinging it. But a hammer doesn’t ask anything of you while it sits in the drawer. A phone does… it’s always asking: for your attention, for your glance, for your next thirty seconds.
So how do we combat these negative influences on the formation of the soul? Strange as it may seem, Saint Porphyrios would say the aim is not to win by force of will:
“Do not fight to expel the darkness from the chamber of your soul. Open a tiny aperture for light to enter, and the darkness will disappear. The same holds for our passions and our weaknesses. Do not fight them, but transform them into strengths by showing disdain for evil. Occupy yourself with hymns of praise… with the worship of God and with divine eros. All the holy books of our Church… contain holy, loving words addressed to Christ. Read them with joy and love and exaltation. When you devote yourself to this effort with intense desire, your soul will be sanctified in a gentle and mystical way without your even being aware of it…
By reading these books you will gradually acquire meekness, humility and love, and your soul will be made good. Don’t choose negative methods to correct yourselves” (Wounded by Love, p. 136).
Instead embrace the positive: prayer, praise, reading edifying books, and focusing the mind on good thoughts.
We humans are endowed with free will; the wisest path forward is to actively choose to fill one’s life with spiritually beneficial things. “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, just, pure, whatever is lovely,… commendable, if there is anything of excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8).
Therefore, let us go forth, taking advantage of every moment God has given us in this life to stitch together a grace-filled wedding garment, shining with radiant beauty, so that when the King enters for the Wedding Feast, He will find us “clothed and in our right mind.”
I must credit my friend Herman Middleton for sections of this homily that I lifted directly from his recent post, which you can read here.
Featured image is courtesy of Getty Images. It comes from a 13th century Spanish illuminated manuscript.