Sunday/Feast

 

                                Sunday/Feast

Today's gospel is the Wedding Feast, where the king invites his people to his son's wedding and no one comes. Worse, the people kill his messengers. So the king kills his people, burns their cities and invites strangers and wayfarers to the celebration instead. "Bad as well as good." Not flattering to us gentiles.

It is pretty harsh, with a curious ambiguity. Christ couches prophesy and the union of the king with his people in a very human ceremony, one of diversion, carelessness, and fun. This is a far cry from the strict admonition to abandon your father and the plow. Much more like Cana with its respect for humanity, its daily life, and its continuity.

And, of the ignored prophets, here is the Scottish Wm. Drummond:

WILLIAM DRUMMOND

Saint John Baptist

THE last and greatest Herald of Heaven's King,
Girt with rough skins, hies to the deserts wild,
Among that savage brood the woods forth bring,
Which he than man more harmless found and mild.
His food was locusts, and what young doth spring
With honey that from virgin hives distill'd;
Parch'd body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing
Made him appear, long since from earth exiled.
There burst he forth: 'All ye, whose hopes rely
On God, with me amidst these deserts mourn;
Repent, repent, and from old errors turn!'
—Who listen'd to his voice, obey'd his cry?
        Only the echoes, which he made relent,
        Rung from their marble caves 'Repent! Repent!'