Rough Readings

There's been a few of these lately. It makes you wonder how folks came up with the image of Hippie Jesus. Consider today:

But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?'
But he was reduced to silence.
Then 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."

Cast into the outer darkness. Over the wrong garment. Now, I realize there are meanings beyond the literal, but it still sounds harsh by modern standards, especially given that so many seem to ignore that there's an outer darkness in the first place.

It does seem instructive about the proper attire for Mass as well, though.

Or Friday's reading from the Book of Joel:

Gird yourselves and weep, O priests!
wail, O ministers of the altar!
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
O ministers of my God!
The house of your God is deprived
of offering and libation.
Proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the elders,
all who dwell in the land,
Into the house of the LORD, your God,
and cry to the LORD!

Alas, the day!
for near is the day of the LORD,
and it comes as ruin from the Almighty.

This seems so much like a message for today that it's freaky.

Or the Gospel from the week ago:

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."

Lots of stuff in here. Maybe the most glaring thing is to remember that our Lord is infinitely loving. This doesn't make Him lacking in justice, nor does it exempt us from taking His commands seriously.