On the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (the parable of the marriage of the King’s son), His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Nativity of the Lord in Chisinau.
Vadim Cheibas, the Metropolitan Secretary and Dean of the cathedral, together with the priests and deacons, assisted the arch-pastor during the service.
At the Divine Liturgy, the Gospel from St. Matthew (chap. 22, vs. 2-14) was read, which presents the parable of the marriage of the king’s son.
The Gospel of the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost contains several teachings on the mystery of the salvation of the world in the Lord Jesus Christ, the mystery of the Church and the Christian life. The King who makes a marriage for his son is God the Father himself. The Son of the King is Jesus Christ the Lord. The wedding is the Kingdom of God. The bride is the Church, that is, the multitude of people called to salvation, who respond promptly to the call and put on the wedding garment of faith and Christian life.
God calls all people to the joys of the Kingdom, no matter how they are categorized, good or bad, each having a divine potential in them from the moment of their birth. The divine call assumed by man in all freedom can transfigure him, can clothe him in the luminous garment of likeness to God. This rebirth must manifest itself as a response to the call, so that our participation in the mystery of the Church may be clothed in the bright garment of enthusiasm and steadfastness in spiritual growth.
In our days it is more important than ever for every Christian to assume an involved participation in the Marriage of the King’s Son. Each of us needs to understand the consequences of being clothed in Christ in a world where people act as if God does not exist. The fact that we are made like God through conscious and committed participation in the life of the Church means that the Church itself is perceived by society as a dynamic factor, pacifying and fruitful through the deeds which prove Christ at work in the world.
May the Good Lord help us to prepare our heavenly wedding garment, now prepared in the Holy Eucharist, to cleanse it from the wickedness of sins through repentance, through confession, to enlighten it through prayer, through the sharing of the Holy Sacraments, through the goodness of almsgiving, of helping the poor, the sick, the orphans, the elderly, all those whom God calls to salvation, even if they never consider themselves worthy of such great honor.
Synodal Sector for Institutional Communication and Media Relations