Jesus seems to have been very fond of weddings. He worked His first miracle at the wedding feast at Cana and He enjoyed referring to weddings and wedding banquets as symbols of heaven. This Gospel, like many parables, is complex in its meaning. As we approach the end of this Church year, which will conclude in two weeks, the liturgy favors the interpretation that the Gospel is about the end of the world when Christ will come again in glory. That day no one knows. Every wise generation of Christians, from those to whom St. Paul wrote in Thessalonica, to the present has waited for Jesus’ return with patience.
St. John had a vision of great wedding supper in heaven. An angel said to him, “Write this down: Happy are those who have been invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” Waiting patiently for that supper is very wise. And we are called to be wise, to wait in patience for the coming of the Lord. The end of the world seems far off. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. If He does not come sooner, the Lord will come in the moment of our death. It is a moment which actually we should look forward to in joyful hope. We naturally fear death and cling to life. And yet we must heed the point of the Gospel: be alert, wide awake, and ready to meet the Lord whenever He comes.
Holy Communion is a preparation for death. A Catholic who is about to die is entitled to, and directed to receive, communion as “viaticum,” the food for the journey from this life to the next. Even when we receive communion at Mass we should be mindful of death, but always with faith in our resurrection from the dead. Standing to receive communion is a sign of that faith. The moral is “Keep your eyes open, for you know not the day or the hour.”