Metr. Sevastianos Reflects on the Parable of the Wedding Feast

ATLANTA — Metr. Sevastianos of Atlanta called Orthodox Christians to examine their response to Christ’s invitation to the Kingdom of Heaven in a homily reflecting on the Gospel’s Parable of the Wedding Feast. He urged the faithful to use the beginning of the new Ecclesiastical Year as an opportunity for spiritual renewal and preparation for eternal life.

Metr. Sevastianos explained that Christ compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a marriage feast offered in His honor by the Father, the King. The invited guests initially reject the invitation, with some turning instead to their farms and businesses, while others mistreat and kill the servants sent to summon them. The Metropolitan connected their rejection to the response of ancient Israel to God’s Prophets and emphasized how indifference can eventually develop into open hostility toward God.

After the invited guests refuse the King’s summons, he sends his servants into the thoroughfares to bring others to the banquet. Metr. Sevastianos noted that both “bad and good” are brought into the wedding hall, reflecting Christ’s call to all people. He then challenged the faithful to consider whether they themselves respond to Christ’s invitation to the Eucharistic Banquet or allow worldly concerns and the doubts of the Devil to keep them from it.

The Metropolitan also focused on the guest who enters the feast without a proper wedding garment. The King orders that he be bound and cast into “the outer darkness,” where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Quoting Christ’s conclusion to the parable, Metr. Sevastianos reminded the faithful: “For many are called, but few are chosen,” stressing that receiving the invitation to the Kingdom requires a faithful response.

As the new Ecclesiastical Year begins, Metr. Sevastianos urged Orthodox Christians to regard the occasion as a “fresh start” and to prepare themselves for the heavenly banquet. He prayed that Christians would not merely be among those invited to the Great Marriage Feast, but would ultimately be counted among those chosen by the King to enter the Heavenly Banquet “now and forever, unto the ages of ages.”

Previously, the UOJ reported that Metr. Sevastianos strengthened ties during a visit to Romania.