"The King in today's story is God. The wedding feast is the happiness of the Messianic age. The King's Son is the Messiah. Those sent with invitations are the prophets and the apostles. The invited who ignore them are the Jews, who do violence to them. Those called in from the street are the sinners and the gentiles. The burning of the city is the destruction of Jerusalem."

So the Jerusalem Bible: a happy interpretation it seems to be, especially to those of us who need a little help sometimes. Once you understand that Jesus speaks an allegory, there is no need to guess over some of the details which seem inappropriate. Why the King should be so insistent that there be guests when the invited did not show, for example. Why the King should be so vindictive and destroy the city of the reluctant guests, for another. They are not important points; rather, they are color for the story.

But part-way through the parable, the Lord Jesus, or more likely, the evangelist, weaves in another story about the Last Judgment. It fits, but not too well, with the first part.

"Matthew, it seems, has combined two parables." Showing up for Judgment Day without the appropriate wedding garment should be understood to mean that faith without good works is dead. At the Last Day we shall be judged not merely for faith, but also for the works that follow on faith. "Lord, Lord!" is not enough.

Binding the sinner hand and foot and throwing such into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth is a vivid picture of rejection at Judgment Day. As the Apostles' Creed has it: "He will come again to judge the living and the dead."

The last sentence of the portion is the winner. "Many are called, but not all are chosen." Or, if you will, "Many are called, but few are chosen." I admit to some trouble here and the Jerusalem Bible does not help.

I am troubled by the notion that perhaps it means that many are called and few have chosen. Heaven and Hell, after all, are chosen. We are not sent there.

As in vocations today. One need not assume that the calls are fewer. They may be more than ever, given the need. What is more rare is response. The call is out. Few answer. "Many are called, few choose."

Like the military. The call is out. The recruits few. The Army is 6,000 short. The Air Force 1,700. The Navy had a big drop last year and this year may make it with lower standards. The Marines do okay by pushing their sports program. Even with a $4,000 entry bonus, $12, 000 further bonuses, and $50,000 in scholarships the Army is still short. It is not a season for joining. I do not know any who know why.

If you say "Many are called, but few are chosen," you more or less put the blame on God. If you would say, "Many are called but few choose," the blame is here [on me]. Granted that Christ said, "You did not choose Me. I chose you," we know that there is my side too.

Christ's answer to a need for greater response was prayer to God for the graces needed, for the courage to do good for God. All in the widest sense of responding to God.

The King did not lower His standards by sending servants to round up any they could find to come to the wedding, for there are no standards with God. His call is universal, unlimited. And it would seem that nothing changes much through time. The world of business, of money, of family, the pursuit of what poses as the good life are as seductive as ever. The punishment will be there, but not as in allegory, but in the empty life, the purposeless existence, the frustrated immortal soul left to starve.

But the call to the wedding still goes out. And in high places and low, in remote corners of the world, not to say in the significant, it is answered. People choose Christ. Call them "chosen" if you will, but it is because they chose that you can do so.

Nor did they do so for any material reward. There's no money in following Christ. No prestige, no clout. Just stiff rules, many crosses. And true happiness here and eternal life hereafter. And that is what we chose, praise God, Who chose us.   Amen.