14th Sunday of Matthew

In Phrygia, near the city of Hierapolis, at a place called Cheretopos, there welled up a spring of water that God had made a physician. A man of Laodicea had a daughter who was mute, and the Chief Commander Michael appeared to him in a dream and told him that if he brought the child to that water and believed, he would not go away grieving. The father came and found others already there washing themselves, and he asked them whose name they called upon. They answered: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and Michael the Archangel. Then he stretched out his hands to heaven, poured the water over his daughter’s face, and the child who had never spoken cried aloud that the God of the Christians is great. The man was baptized with his whole household, and over the spring he raised a small oratory in honor of the Archangel. From that day both Christians and pagans came for healing, and many who came for their bodies went away having also received faith.

Ninety years after that oratory was built, a boy of about ten came from Hierapolis, of a believing family, whose name was Archippus, and he settled there as guardian of the church. He remained sixty years at that service, and the manner of his life was this: he tasted neither bread nor meat nor wine, but boiled wild herbs without salt and ate of them once in the week; he wore two rough sacks, one of which never left his body until his burial, when he was clothed in the other; his bed was strewn with sharp stones covered over with coarse cloth, so that those who entered would not see them, and his pillow was a sack filled with thorns. By his preaching, and still more by the sight of such a life, many idolaters were brought to Christ—and for that very reason the pagans of the region conceived a hatred for the shrine, for the spring, and for the old man who kept them.

Since they could not destroy the church by hand, they resolved to destroy it by water. Some three miles to the east, two rivers came down from the mountain, the Lykokapros and the Kouphos, which met at the head of the great mountain and ran off toward Lycia. For ten days the pagans labored to dam and gather them and to cut a channel that would hurl the whole weight of both rivers down upon the shrine. Archippus, understanding what was intended, did not flee. He kept vigil beneath the altar, weeping, and chanted the psalm: The rivers have lifted up their voice, O Lord. On the appointed day the pagans opened the works and stood off at a distance to watch the place be swallowed.

Then the Archangel came, and the servant of God saw a pillar of fire rising from the earth to heaven, and heard the voice of him who stands before God. Michael bade Archippus stand his ground and not be afraid, and he lifted his voice against the waters, asking against whom they thought they were coming, and who had deceived them into leaving their course. He signed them with the Cross, and the rivers halted and stood up in a wall the height of ten men. Then, as Moses stretched out his hand and divided the sea with his rod, so the Archangel struck the rock with his right hand and clove it this way and that, and into that chasm he commanded the waters to hurl themselves and to roar there until the end of the age. He made the sign of the Cross over the abyss, and declared that in this place every sickness and every weakness and every working of the evil one should be driven away, and that whoever fled there in faith, calling upon the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and Michael the Archangel, should not depart in grief. The shrine stood unharmed, the pagans fled in terror, and from the plunging of the waters the place was called no longer Colossae but Chonae, which is to say the funnels. Archippus lived on there until his seventieth year and reposed in peace.

Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians that the apostles are fellow workers for your joy, for by faith you stand. The Archangel’s word to Archippus in the hour of the flood was precisely that: stand your ground, and do not be afraid. The Epistle and the commemoration meet on the same verb. It is worth adding that Michael’s first act against the rivers was not the striking of the rock but the sign of the Cross—and at Orthros this Sunday the katavasiae already being sung are those of the Cross canon, which open with Moses dividing the Red Sea by an upright stroke of his rod. The hagiography and the hymnography are saying the same thing.

Little is recorded of her, and it should be said plainly. The synaxarion notice runs to two lines: Saint Calodote was the wife of a certain Cyrus, of Alexandria in Egypt; she was seized in the persecution under Decius and beheaded by the governor Valerian while she was carrying a child. She is numbered among a company of Egyptian martyrs commemorated on this day—Macarius, Andrew, Cyriacus, Dionysius, Andrew the soldier, Andropelagia, Thecla, Theoctistus, and Sarapabon the senator. The distich appointed for her plays upon her name, which means giver of good things: Calodote, her head cut off by the sword, stands beside Thee, O Word, the Giver of good things.

Greek devotional tradition adds that what marked her among the faithful was her almsgiving, which made no distinction between believer and unbeliever, and that she would often go without necessities herself in order to give. This is tradition rather than documented life, and is best offered as such. If it is used, it lands on the parable directly: the king’s command is to go out to the highways and gather all whom the servants find, both bad and good, until the hall is full—and Calodote is remembered for giving without first sorting the worthy from the unworthy. The sources differ on her year; the century is safer than the date.

• Who would not choose to come to a marriage, and that a King’s marriage, and of a King making a marriage for a Son? (Chrysostom)
• That you might learn God’s tender care, His yearning towards us, the cheerfulness of the state of things, that there is nothing sorrowful there, nor sad, but all things are full of spiritual joy. (Chrysostom)
• Not for press of business, but from making light of it, they did not come. (Chrysostom)
• When spiritual things call us, there is no press of business that has the power of necessity. (Chrysostom)
• And unto what does He bid them? Unto labors, and toils, and sweat? Nay, but unto pleasure. (Chrysostom)
• For the garment is life and practice. (Chrysostom)
• Although to be called and to be cleansed was of grace, yet, when called and clothed in clean garments, to continue keeping them so, this is of the diligence of them that are called. (Chrysostom)
• It is not possible at the same time to deck both soul and body. (Chrysostom)
• You are decking the city in various ways, but suffering the king, the mind, to be dragged bound after the brute passions. (Chrysostom)
• Let us tremble, then, when we understand that if one does not lead a pure life, faith alone benefits him not at all. (Theophylact)
• Who is he that is wearing filthy garments? It is he who is not clothed with compassion, goodness, and brotherly love. (Theophylact)
• It is God’s part to call, but to become one of the chosen or not, is our part. (Theophylact)

The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

What then could be more ungrateful than they, when being bidden to a marriage they rush away? For who would not choose to come to a marriage, and that a King’s marriage, and of a King making a marriage for a Son?

And wherefore is it called a marriage? That you might learn God’s tender care, His yearning towards us, the cheerfulness of the state of things, that there is nothing sorrowful there, nor sad, but all things are full of spiritual joy. Therefore also John calls Him a bridegroom; therefore Paul again says, I have espoused you to one husband; and, This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

Why then is not the bride said to be espoused to Him, but to the Son? Because she that is espoused to the Son is espoused to the Father. For it is indifferent in Scripture that the one or the other should be said, because of the identity of the substance.

Hereby He proclaimed the resurrection also. For since in what went before He had spoken of the death, He shows that even after the death, then is the marriage, then the bridegroom.

And sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.

No Eastern commentary is given for this verse. The following is supplied from a Western Father and is marked as such.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (c. 430), Western

The holy Scriptures teach us that there are two feasts of the Lord: one to which the good and evil come, the other to which the evil do not come. So then the feast of which we have just now heard when the gospel was being read has both good and evil guests. All who excused themselves from this feast are evil, but not all those who entered in are good.

Again, he sent out other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

And He not suddenly, but a long time before. For, Tell, He says, them that are bidden; and again, Call them that were bidden; which circumstance makes the charge against them heavier. And when were they bidden? By all the prophets; by John again, for unto Christ he would pass all on, saying, He must increase, I must decrease; by the Son Himself again, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you; and again, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

For since on seeing the Son they were angry and slew Him, He bids them again by His servants. And unto what does He bid them? Unto labors, and toils, and sweat? Nay, but unto pleasure. For, My oxen, He says, and my fatlings are killed. See how complete His banquet, how great His munificence.

But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

And not even this shamed them, but the more long-suffering He showed, so much the more were they hardened. For not for press of business, but from making light of it, they did not come.

How then do some bring forward marriages, others yokes of oxen? These things surely are of want of leisure. By no means; for when spiritual things call us, there is no press of business that has the power of necessity.

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

Those who were less extreme merely declined the invitation: one went his way to his own field, that is, turned towards a life of pleasure and carnal pursuits, for one’s own field is the body; another, to his merchandise, that is, to a life of acquisition and profit, for merchants are a type of men most greedy for profit. This parable shows that those who fail to attend the wedding feast and the fellowship and feasting with Christ do so primarily on account of these two things—the pleasures of the flesh, or the passion of greed.

And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

And to me they seem moreover to make use of these excuses, putting forward these things as a cloak for their negligence. And not this only is the grievous thing, that they came not, but also that which is a far more violent and furious act, to have even beaten them that came, and to have used them despitefully, and to have slain them; this is worse than the former. For those others came demanding produce and fruits, and were slain; but these, bidding them to the marriage of Him that had been slain by them, and these again are murdered.

What is equal to this madness? This Paul also was laying to their charge, when he said, Who both killed the Lord, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us.

But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

Since they were not willing to come, yea and also slew those that came unto them, He burns up their cities, and sent His armies and slew them. And these things He says, declaring beforehand the things that took place under Vespasian and Titus.

And for this reason, let me add, not straightway after Christ was slain did the capture take place, but after forty years, that He might show His long-suffering, when they had slain Stephen, when they had put James to death, when they had spitefully entreated the apostles.

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

This parable, too, like that of the vineyard, alludes to the disobedience of the Jews. But as that one indicates Christ’s death, so this one indicates the nuptial joy, that is, the resurrection. But this parable also shows them to be worse transgressors than the men in the preceding parable. For the husbandmen of the vineyard slew those who demanded fruits of them. But these men vented their murderous rage upon those who had invited them to a wedding.

God is likened to a human king, for He does not appear as He is, but as it is fitting for Him to appear to us. He makes a wedding feast for His Son, joining Him to every soul that is beautiful. For the bridegroom is Christ, and the bride is the Church and the soul.

Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

See then care unutterable. He had planted a vineyard; He had done all things, and finished; when His servants had been put to death, He sent other servants; when those had been slain, He sent the son; and when He was put to death, He bids them to the marriage. They would not come.

Then upon this He slays them, as being incurably diseased. For that they were incurably diseased was proved not by their acts only, but by the fact that even when harlots and publicans had believed, they did these things. So that, not by their own crimes alone, but also from what others were able to do aright, these men are condemned.

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

Since the previous servants, Moses and those with him, and the prophets, did not persuade them, He sends out other servants, the apostles, and they call the Gentiles who do not walk in the true way but are divided, some here, some there, separated into many ways and doctrines.

Perhaps an even better explanation is this: the highway is the life and the manner in which each person lives; the lanes exiting from the highway are doctrines.

Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

And see thou even herein His bounty. As many as you shall find, says He, bid to the marriage. Hear Paul interpreting this parable, and saying thus: It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but since you judge yourselves unworthy, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

Therefore Christ also says, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. He knew this indeed even before, but that He might leave them no pretext of a shameless sort of contradiction, although He knew it, to them first He both came and sent, both stopping their mouths, and teaching us to fulfill all our parts, though no one should derive any profit.

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.

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

So as the apostles went forth from Jerusalem to the Gentiles, they gathered all together, both evil and good, that is, those filled with every wickedness and also those less wicked, whom He calls good by comparison to the others.

But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

Then, in order that not even these should put confidence in their faith alone, He discourses unto them also concerning the judgment to be passed upon wicked actions; to them that have not yet believed, of coming unto Him by faith, and to them that have believed, of care with respect to their life. For the garment is life and practice.

And yet the calling was of grace; wherefore then does He take a strict account? Because although to be called and to be cleansed was of grace, yet, when called and clothed in clean garments, to continue keeping them so, this is of the diligence of them that are called.

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

The entry into the wedding takes place without distinction of persons, for by grace alone we have all been called, good and bad alike; but the life thereafter of those who enter shall not be without examination, for indeed the king makes an exceedingly careful examination of those found to be sullied after entering into the faith.

Let us tremble, then, when we understand that if one does not lead a pure life, faith alone benefits him not at all. For not only is he cast out of the wedding feast, but he is sent away into the fire. Who is he that is wearing filthy garments? It is he who is not clothed with compassion, goodness, and brotherly love.

For there are many who deceive themselves with vain hopes, thinking that they shall attain the kingdom of heaven, and they include themselves among the assembly of the dinner guests, thinking great things of themselves.

So he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

The being called was not of merit, but of grace. It was fit therefore to make a return for the grace, and not to show forth such great wickedness after the honor.

Wherefore also great is the punishment appointed for them that have been remiss. For as they did despite by not coming, so also thou by thus sitting down with a corrupt life. For to come in with filthy garments is this, namely, to depart hence having one’s life impure; wherefore also he was speechless.

Do you see how, although the fact was so manifest, He does not punish at once, until he himself, who has sinned, has passed the sentence? For by having nothing to reply, he condemned himself.

Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

Do not now, on hearing of darkness, suppose he is punished by this, by sending into a place where there is no light only, but where there is also weeping and gnashing of teeth. And this He says, indicating the intolerable pains.

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

The Lord then says to His servants, the angels of punishment, Bind his hands and feet, that is, the soul’s powers of action. For in this present age is the time to act and to do, but in the age to come all of the soul’s powers of action are bound, and a man cannot then do any good thing to outweigh his sins. Gnashing of teeth is the meaningless repentance that will then take place.

For many are called, but few are chosen.

Saint John Chrysostom (c. 407)

Hear ye, as many as having partaken of the mysteries, and having been present at the marriage, clothe your souls with filthy deeds. Hear whence you were called. From the highway. Being what? Lame and halt in soul, which is a much more grievous thing than the mutilation of the body. Reverence the love of Him who called you, and let no one continue to have filthy garments, but let each of you busy himself about the clothing of your soul.

Hear, you women; hear, you men; we need not these garments that are bespangled with gold, that adorn our outward parts, but those others that adorn the inward. Whilst we have these former, it is difficult to put on those latter. It is not possible at the same time to deck both soul and body.

For neither, if any one were to adorn your house by hanging it with golden curtains, and were to make you sit there in rags, naked, would you endure it with meekness. But lo, now you do this to yourself, decking the house of your soul, I mean the body, with curtains beyond number, but leaving the soul itself to sit in rags.

Rememberest thou not that you are bidden to a marriage, and to God’s marriage? Considerest thou not how the soul that is bidden ought to enter into those chambers, clad, and decked with fringes of gold?

Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid (c. 1107)

Many are called, for God calls many, indeed, all, but few are chosen. For few are saved and found worthy to be chosen by God. For it is God’s part to call, but to become one of the chosen or not, is our part.

Source: Homily 69 on the Gospel of Saint Matthew

The great patristic treatment of this parable, and the source of nearly all the verse-by-verse commentary above. What the Catena excerpts do not fully convey is the length and force of the moral section that closes the homily, in which Chrysostom turns from exposition to the congregation in front of him and presses the wedding garment directly onto their clothing, their houses, and their money. He is preaching to people who dressed well for church. The rhetorical move—decking the house of the soul with curtains beyond number, while leaving the soul itself to sit in rags—is worth reading in full before preaching, because it demonstrates how a Father takes an eschatological image and lands it on Tuesday morning.

Source: The Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew, chapter 22

Theophylact supplies what Chrysostom largely leaves implicit: a sustained allegorical reading in which the two refusals (the field and the merchandise) are identified as the two great competitors for the soul, the pleasures of the flesh and the passion of greed. He also draws the sharpest single line in the tradition on the relation of grace to effort—that it is God’s part to call, and ours to become one of the chosen. His gloss on the oxen and the fatted cattle as the Old and New Testaments is a distinctively Eastern reading not found in the Latin commentators.

Source: Parables of the Gospel, on the wedding garment

Included with the note that Gregory is a Western Father, though he is widely read in Orthodox circles and this excerpt circulates in Orthodox publication. His answer to the question of what the wedding garment is has shaped nearly every later homily on the passage: it is neither faith nor baptism, since the man was already inside the hall by both, but charity. Anyone preaching the garment will find that most modern Orthodox homilies on this parable are, knowingly or not, arguing with or agreeing with Gregory.

Chrysostom asks why the kingdom should be called a marriage at all, and answers that it is so we would learn that there is nothing sorrowful there, nor sad, but all things are full of spiritual joy. This is the hinge of the parable and the point most often missed. The invited do not decline because the summons is burdensome; they decline because they made light of it. What is refused is not a duty but a delight. Chrysostom presses the absurdity: unto what does He bid them—labors, and toils, and sweat? Nay, but unto pleasure.

That reframing has pastoral consequences. A congregation that experiences the life of the Church primarily as obligation has, in the terms of the parable, already accepted the premise of the men who went to the farm and the business. They are not wicked; they are merely unpersuaded that anything is being offered. The parable does not argue them out of their preference. It simply names what the thing is that they are turning down.

The men who refuse are not given scandalous reasons. One goes to his own farm, another to his business—work and property, the two most respectable claims a person can make on a Sunday morning. Theophylact reads them as the body and as greed, the pleasures of the flesh and the passion of acquisition, and observes that these two account for most of who is missing. Chrysostom is blunter: these things surely are of want of leisure—by no means, for when spiritual things call us, there is no press of business that has the power of necessity.

The force of the passage lies in its refusal to make the excuses bad enough to be safely disowned. Nobody in the pews has murdered a prophet. Everybody in the pews has had a busy week.

The second half of the parable exists to prevent a misreading of the first. Having established that entry is entirely of grace—the servants gather all whom they find, both bad and good, off the streets—the parable immediately forecloses the conclusion that what follows entry does not matter. Chrysostom states both halves without softening either: the calling was of grace, and yet, when called and clothed in clean garments, to continue keeping them so, this is of the diligence of them that are called. For the garment is life and practice.

Theophylact gives the garment content: the one wearing filthy garments is the one not clothed with compassion, goodness, and brotherly love. The man is not condemned for entering unworthily. Everyone entered unworthily. He is condemned for having remained as he entered. His speechlessness matters—the king asks a question, and there is no answer to give, which is why the sentence is passed by the man himself before it is passed by the king.

The closing line is the hardest sentence in the pericope, and the Eastern reading of it is notably free of determinism. Theophylact takes it in a single clause that is worth quoting from the ambo: it is God’s part to call, but to become one of the chosen or not, is our part. The many and the few are not two fixed populations. They are the same population at two moments—before the examination and after it. The parable ends not with a statistic but with a question put to the person hearing it.

Let us worship the Word, O ye faithful, praising Him that with the Father and Spirit is co-beginningless God, Who was born of a pure Virgin that we all be saved.

The tone of the week sets the resurrection under the parable. Chrysostom notes that the marriage is proclaimed after the death—then is the marriage, then the bridegroom—so the Sunday hymn and the Gospel are making the same claim: the feast is possible because the Son who was killed is risen.

Supreme Commander of the Hosts of the Heavens, we, the unworthy, importune and beseech thee that by thy supplications thou encircle us in the shelter of the wings of thine immaterial glory.

The hymn of the day’s commemoration. The image of being sheltered under the Archangel’s wings sits directly against the parable’s image of being cast into the outer darkness, and the shrine at Chonae that Michael sheltered was itself a place where all comers, believing and unbelieving, were received and healed.

By thy holy nativity, O pure one, Joachim and Anna were delivered from the reproach of barrenness; and Adam and Eve were delivered from the corruption of death.

Appointed from August 24 through September 12, so it is sung on this Sunday two days before the feast itself. On the morning the parable of the wedding is read, the assembly is already singing of a marriage that bore fruit against every expectation—and of the one guest who, when summoned, said yes.

All ye, the race of mankind, come, and gather as one company, to see a marvelous wonder which was accomplished at Chonae.

From Orthros. The fullest hymnographic account of the miracle in the day’s services, and the most vivid single text for anyone preaching the commemoration alongside the Gospel.

Thou, O Lord, wilt keep and preserve us. Save me, O Lord, for the godly man hath disappeared.