On 22 September 2019, the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross, the day of memory of the holy Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna and of St. Theodosius of Chernigov, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral in Tashkent. The All-Night Vigil was served the evening before.
Concelebrating with His Eminence were Hieromonk Spiridon (Pozdeev), Priest Andrei Lin, Protodeacon Alexander Nesin and Deacon Rustik Kovalev.
After the Liturgy Metropolitan Vikenty addressed the faithful with his archpastoral word, in which he explained the meaning of the Gospel account of those invited to the Lord’s wedding feast.
“And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: ‘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. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, ‘See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.’” But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 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. Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen’” (Matt. 22:1–14).
“Our Lord Jesus Christ prepares a feast for us here on earth, His Eminence noted. This is an image of the Church of Christ. At this feast, where there is the grace of God, where there are the Sacraments of the Church, we are nourished by this grace and we rejoice. The Lord constantly calls us to this spiritual feast. If we look at the whole yearly cycle of the Church, there are a great many feasts, great and small. This is precisely the festive banquet to which the Lord calls us.
At the same time we saw that everyone came to this wedding feast, but not many were in wedding garments. The wedding garment is interpreted as our virtues: purity of life, mercy, humility, patience, meekness, love for neighbour and love for God. These virtues are the garment that helps us to attain the Kingdom of God.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, this parable tells us that we must come to the spiritual feast not merely to rejoice in the grace with which the Lord visits us, but to apply this grace to cleansing our sinful life.
Grace is given during this spiritual feast so that we, infirm and weak, with our various sinful inclinations, may apply this grace to heal and uproot from our souls these sinful passions, among them murmuring, discontent, judging others, anger, irritation and the desire to take revenge on our neighbour. All this is, in the literal sense, a garment unfit for the wedding.
If we go to church only to receive from God the joy of grace-filled communion and do nothing for our salvation, to change our life, to uproot our passions, pride, arrogance, self-will, our own human righteousness, none of this will do us any good. That is why we remain without the wedding garment.
The Lord also says that ‘many are called, but few are chosen.’ The Lord calls all of us to this spiritual feast for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. But, sadly, not everyone attains this Kingdom. We have people who come to church only occasionally, or just drop into a church to light candles; there are people who come in and pass by but do not live the life of the Church. In this parable the Lord calls all of us to come to this wedding feast as God’s commandments require: to attend the house of God every Sunday and to take part in the services and Sacraments of the Church.
The Lord gives His festive grace so that we may be inspired and come to the festive banquet of the Church of Christ. This is the fulfilment of God’s commandment of love for God.”
After the Liturgy Metropolitan Vikenty served a moleben in the Sunday school for the parishioners of the Dormition Cathedral at the beginning of the new academic year.
