Gå till kyrkofäderna !

Under många år har eleverna och jag haft svårighet med Jesus avvisande av mannen som inte hade rätt kläder på sig på bröllopsfesten. Det verkade så kärlekslöst att slänga ut någon på grund av klädsel, även om denna klädsel naturligtvis inte var passande och personen själv kanske skulle vilja ha en bättre.

Äntligen har jag hittat en förklaring. Hos St Cyrillus av Jerusalem. Det handlar om att han inte har vita kläder på sig, alltså äkta kärlek till Brudgummen. Utan den fungerar inte frälsningen. Naturligtvis. Så här låter St Cyrillus i engelsk översättning:

A certain man in the Gospels once pried into the marriage feasts, and took an unbecoming garment, and came in, sat down, and ate: for the bridegroom permitted it. But when he saw them all clad in white, he ought to have assumed a garment of the same kind himself: whereas he partook of the like food, but was unlike them in fashion and in purpose. The bridegroom, however, though bountiful, was not undiscerning: and in going round to each of the guests and observing them (for his care was not for their eating, but for their seemly behaviour), he saw a stranger not having on a wedding garment, and said to. him, Friend, how camest thou in hither? In what a colour! With what a conscience! What though the door- keeper forbade thee not, because of the bountifulness of the entertainer? what though thou weft ignorant in what fashion thou shouldest come in to the banquet?—thou didst come in, and didst see the glittering fashions of the guests: shouldest thou not have been taught even by what was before thine eyes? Shouldest thou not have retired in good season, that thou mightest enter in good season again? But now thou hast come in unseasonably, to be unseasonably cast out. So he commands the servants, Bind his feet, which daringly intruded: bind his hands, which knew not how to put a bright garment around him: and cast him into the outer darkness; for he is unworthy of the wedding torches. Thou seest what happened to that man: make thine own condition safe.

MAN SKA GÅ TILL KYRKOFÄDERNA !!