Many are invited, few are chosen. I noticed that as Don read the Gospel this weekend...somebody stole my homily here. You just want to go home and watch the game. We’re used to the words many are called, right, few are chosen, and every time I hear that I smile because I think of Bishop Kinicki who died. He was the bishop of Alaska. He wanted to put on his coat of arms for the diocese of Anchorage, "Many are cold, few are frozen." Anyways, that thought comes into my mind, so now you’re stuck with it too. Pain that is shared is lessened.

You remember in high school, you learned about allegories from your high school English teacher. An allegory is a literary technique using symbolic figures or actions to make a point about human nature. Indeed, some of these great writings on human nature are best expressed through allegory and through myth. The Old Testament is filled with allegory and today we hear Jesus give us this allegory of the wedding banquet, or not of the wedding banquet, but the banquet. It is pretty easy for us to understand the various elements of the allegory, with the exception of one element. The banquet hall, itself, is obviously heaven, the great feast is heaven, the king is God the Father, the son, is Jesus. He mentions in this story that he sends out his messengers to invite people to the banquet. They are not listened to, and some are even killed, a clear reference to the prophets. The story talks about he universality of God’s call, not only for the chosen people, the Jewish people, but all people, are invited to the banquet no matter where they live. Even the reference to the king destroying the city is no doubt a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. That last part of the Gospel seems to throw us for a loop. What’s up with this poor guy who shows up and he’s not dressed in the wedding garment, it is the wedding, and he gets thrown out. Of course, he’s thrown into hell. He’s thrown into the darkness where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth, that’s hell. And we all kind of go, that poor guy, what did he do wrong. Well, there’s a simple answer to that, and I want to talk about this today.

The answer as Paul says in the 3^th chapter of Galatians, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself in Christ." Now if we have to be well dressed to get to heaven, there would be very few people from Los Alamos there, I’ll tell you that personally. We’re in trouble. What this is saying is to get to heaven we have to be clothed in Christ. And this fellow wasn’t and he didn’t get to heaven.

There is another allegory on a similar theme written by C.S. Lewis called The Great Divorce. Some of you are probably far more familiar with it than I am, but I’ve been reading up on it recently. C. S. Lewis is a great writer, indeed he was more though, he was a poet, a writer, a philosopher, and in the last 20-30 years C. S. Lewis is being recognized as a theologian. He is relatively contemporary, he was born in 1898, I know you kids think that’s a million years ago, but I had an aunt born in 1898. He died on November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, so relatively recent figure. By the way, he’s also called an English writer, but the fact is he was born in Belfast. The last time I checked, Belfast was in Ireland, so the great Irish writer, now if I didn’t like him he’d be English. But, the great Irish writer, C. S. Lewis, wrote this allegory called the Great Divorce, and like most allegories, it’s kind of a strange story. It’s about a group of people who are very diverse and they take a long bus ride, and they end up in the vestibule of heaven. Not in heaven itself, but in the anteroom of heaven. And they’re told, first of all they’re kind of happy to be there, I mean who doesn’t want to go to heaven, even people who are living terrible lives don’t want to go to hell, I don’t think. In any case they are told before they can enter into heaven they have to take nothing with them from this earth, and they have to trust God. Of course, most say yes to this opportunity, but some struggle with it. One fellow who has been an independent person his whole life, you know the type, it’s an American type, the type "I don’t need anybody’s help, I’m a self made man. I’m totally in control of everything." That describes a lot of us, maybe. You know we don’t even look at directions, we men, when we put stuff together. I have a treadmill for exercising, Don helped me put it together, and we were so proud, we put that thing together and we never read the directions, the directions were sitting there, and we stumbled and made mistakes, but we would not lower ourselves to read the directions. Well, anyway, this guy who has struggled his whole life with egotism, and I think that’s part of the deal with us guys, he couldn’t trust God, and he couldn’t leave himself to put on Christ and enter into heaven. As so in the allegory, Lewis describes how he actually folds himself into himself and disappears into the dark hole of his ego and goes to hell. He can’t give himself up.

And another fellow is clothed in sin and shame and Lewis suggested the sin of lust. He knows these things are wrong and he wants to let go of them, but he doesn’t. That’s the thing about lust especially, well of all the vices, we know they’re wrong, we know we’d be happy if we could get rid of it, but we cling close to it, and of course it clings to us, it’s Satan’s garment. And so he’s struggling and finally he yells, "God, help me, God help me!" And of course then the battle ensues between good and evil, God and Satan, and we know who wins that. God does help him, and he’s transformed and his clothing of lust leaves him and he’s clothed in the armor of salvation and he enters into heaven. The point is simple, and as the Gospel point is simple, in order to get to heaven, we cannot be clothed in sin and in the consequences of sin, shame and guilt. We have to be cleaned up before we can enter into heaven, all of us. St. Paul says it clearly in Colossians 3, "Put to death then, the parts of you that are earthly, immorality, impurity," and by the way, you know this little girl Brittany Spears, has started something that’s made purity ten times harder for the American man, this bare midriff. I’m convinced the accident rate is up in American, automobiles, men driving, by 50% over the last three years. And little innocent girls who are walking around with their naval and their stomach showing have no idea what that does to men. Stop that. Put some clothes on, please. And parents, you need to help your kids shop. Get more clothes for your money. I mean look, they think it’s innocent, but never mind; I’m not going to say anymore. "Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly, immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming. You too once conducted yourselves in that way, but now you must put them all away, anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language. Stop lying to one another since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You have put on Christ and you are being renewed in the image of your creator." We have to get rid of the old self if we are to get into heaven. We have to trust God and surrender to him, submit to God.

You know, Muslims do that by virtue of their name. The word Islam means "to submit", and the word Muslim means, "one who submits to Allah, one who submits to God." But that’ s really what we are as Christians. We follow Christ, and if you read the story of the life of Christ what he did was submit to the Father. You know its, "Father, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done." That’s s the story of his 33 years of life, he submitted to the father. If we are to be like Christ we must submit to God. We have to. You know, and yet we cling to our sins, and our sins cling to us. At the confessional people come week after week, month after month, to confession, a few people come, and they say, "Yeah, you know it’s the same thing, I confessed last month." I hear their frustration, and I hear them say, "You know father, I just can’t let go of this. I want to, I know it’s not good for me, but I just can’t let go of this." I said, "Well, just keep trying and come back again, and keep trying, and keep trying, God is pleased with you. He knows that temptation is hard, but he knows you haven’t given up and you keep trying. He is very pleased with you." But we not only have to be cleaned of sin, but listen to this, this is important, we have to be clean of guilt and shame. That is the result of sin. And I have heard many people, many a person has said to me, "Oh, I know God forgives me, but I can’t forgive myself." Then you can’t get to heaven if you’re clothed in guilt and shame. I always tell them, you’ve heard this probably before, many times, but for your penance, go out into the church and look at the crucifix, and you tell Jesus Christ that he’s not good enough for you. That you’re a bigger sinner than he is a savior." "Oh, I couldn’t say that Father." I said, " That’s exactly what you’re saying if you don’t let it go. As a matter of fact, the reaction of one who has sinned greatly should be great love and joy. If you look back at your sinful self, not that you’re happy that you’re a sinner, but you go "Oh my God, how great is God’s mercy." That’s what it’s about. It’s always about his mercy, not about our sins. It’s about his mercy. You can’t get to heaven if you’re filled with guilt and shame.

C.S. Lewis said, paraphrasing him, "If we insist on keeping earth, we shall not see heaven. If we accept heaven, then we shall not be able to retain even the smallest souvenir of earth." And he said, "In the end, there are only two kinds of people, those who say to God. ‘Thy will be done’, and those to whom God says, ‘Your will be done.’" So that’s the deal. We all want to get to heaven; the deal is God wants you, but not your stuff. Leave your stuff here. Get rid of it. He wants you just as you were on the day of your baptism, clothed in Christ Jesus.

And let us pray. This is the prayer of Abandonment of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a beautiful, beautiful prayer.