Part of The Great West Door of the Cathedral of St. Stephen, c. 1195, Bourges, France.

The king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”                             Matthew 22:13-14.

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If ever you are in an ancient Catholic country in Europe and visit the local cathedral, take a moment to look at the great west door. There  is always a great west door because the cathedrals of Europe were always built generally pointing towards Jerusalem, namely to the east. Also they are always in the shape of a cross. So the main entrance is always the great west door at the western end of the building. And as you look at the carvings on the great west door, look at the bottom right hand corner. If this is a “average” ancient cathedral, you will find a design similar to the photograph above, taken in Bourges, France, in 2008, and so had been there for over 800 years. It displays the medieval imagination of hell, whither the man who had not prepared for the wedding feast in today’ gospel but came to it anyway, was summarily cast. It does not take much imagination to hear and see the wailing and grinding of teeth. If you look closely, a monk is being hastened towards the cauldron, just as two bishops are being thrust in! And in today’s gospel, you might be tempted to ask, was this simply because the fellow had not put on his Sunday best to go to the wedding feast? Yes, but….

Hell is a fascinating thought, as it appears in many places, situations and moments. And there are many words meaning the same thing: Netherworld, Gehenna, Hades, Sheol, Underworld, Inferno, Tartarus, bottomless pit, abode of the damned, etc. And there is Dante’s very famous line over the entrance to hell: “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate” or Abandon hope all ye who enter here. To abandon all hope….. That is a dreadful thought, literally – full of dread. You will never, ever, be able to correct the behavior which brought you there, all remorse will be useless, you will never be able to make up for the evil behavior which brought you to that moment. Yes: abandon all hope. These days I think it is rare to hear talk of hell from the pulpit in church. It is not a popular subject, and priests seem to be very averse to any mention of it at all. But Jesus quite clearly states that’s where we will end up if….. Which brings us to the Sunday Best that gentleman was not wearing when he arrived at the feast in today’s gospel. So, clearly, Sunday Best must mean a great deal more than a suit of clothes; in this parable, I think it demonstrates contempt for what is held to be good and decent in this life. It must be the description, in some way, of that man’s life here on earth. The better, the better. The worse, the worse. And, speaking of the here and now, if sinful action is allowed to dominate your life, then the worst will happen. And I feel that we all know when we are doing the opposite of what God wants of us. The Church says that each one of us is inclined to the good, as we are made in God’s image, but we instinctively know when we freely choose to be evil, when we freely act sinfully, selfishly, and – even worse – joyfully, then that sort of behavior will end us up in hell. And my image of hell is, I think, worse than the ancient picture in stone above. It is to be banished into intense dark, fully conscious, forever. If we have ignored all divine teaching throughout our lives, just pleasing ourselves, then each one of us will exist forever with ourself alone, with only our life’s memories over and over. If God and others were utterly ignored, or ridiculed in some way, or treated contemptuously or simply excluded throughout our life, then we have only ourselves left, and it is with that reality with which we will live forever. That’s my image of hell, all hope gone, and we are utterly unable to do anything about it. One year from now, we will still be there, alone, fully conscious, in the dark, with nothing but our own thoughts and memories. In 200 years, it will be the same. In 1000 years….. the same. It is a very chilling thought, but which we brought on ourselves.

So, how do we avoid such a devastating conclusion to our time on earth? Well, today’s readings do really seem to invite us to enjoy life to the fullest, with “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines”, from today’s first reading, where death has been destroyed, so presumably this is the reward for being a loving child of God in this life. And the second reading today seems to suggest how we can do that. Paul says he is used to good times and bad, always trusting supremely in the Lord (and that is to be achieved by loving each other, Jesus’ one and only command). That means taking care of both ourselves and others, now and always. That requires a positive outlook at all times if possible, and when not, it requires us to be as creative, resourceful and as generous as possible. And so we come to the great wedding feast in today’s gospel. And here, note, the invited are not being called to be anything other than themselves, but ready to wish blessings and good health on the happy bride and groom. But the ones first invited choose not to come, completely wrapped up in themselves to an extreme degree, even to the inexplicable extent of killing the king’s messengers, for which they are punished. So the king opens the palace gates to anyone and everyone, all invited to the wedding feast. And they (we) come, no doubt amazed that the invitation is as generous as it is, and consequently everyone goes in their Sunday best, except for one. When challenged by the king (no less) as to why he has done that, and with no answer, he too is forever condemned to eternal damnation for putting his comfort above all else and hang the consequences.

We – all of us – are invited to that self-same banquet in the grandest of grand locations, heaven itself! We would be utterly idiotic to ignore it and continue on as if nothing had happened! But we humans are a stubborn bunch, much more prone to doing our own thing than fulfilling God’s hope for all of us. But this open invitation should be forever fixed before us, the goal of everything we do in this life. And getting that Sunday best has to be part of the deal. Without it, disaster. Therefore it is our choice, ours alone, as to our response. And how could anyone not be prepared for such an event?

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame d’Amiens 1270, the Great West Door, photograph taken in 2008.

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