8 Then he *said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to where the roadways come to an end, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ 10 Those servants went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both bad and the good; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.11 “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing a wedding garment, 12 and he says to him, [My] ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And the man was rendered speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Binding him hand and foot, throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are [f]called, but few continue on to be chosen.
(Matthew 22: 8 – 14)

Long ago, when we lived in the Garden, we were married in intimate communion with the Divine world. Our garments were radiant with color. But then we took a bite from the Tree of Knowledge of Good/Bad (Evil). We’ve seen many pictures of the archangel holding a balance. This is a modern depiction of that very Tree. We use the balance to make choices between what we consider good and not so good.

We start using such a scale the moment we awaken in the morning. Can I indulge in a few more minutes of sleep? Pros in one pan, cons in the other. Oatmeal or toast for breakfast? Pros and cons. Or more seriously, Should I tell my friend the truth today? Or, Who should I vote for? The “evidence is weighed,” to use a courtroom phrase. And we have a universally recognized body-gesture that depicts this process.

The archangel’s task has been to implant this weighing process in the evolutionary stream of humanity, the stream of developing inner freedom. But here’s the rub. We can’t gather enough Information to be sure we have all that’s relevant. And sometimes a pro in one context becomes a con in another. Perhaps, without reflecting we just do the usual. Perhaps we do nothing and hope for more information. Perhaps we make a wrong choice, perhaps a right one, and often what seemed wrong becomes right and vice-versa. It’s always risky, this freedom business!

And so, “gnashing our teeth” in anxious uncertainty is the price we pay for the possibility of becoming courageous, free-choosing individuals. But as a consequence, the glorious life and soul garments we wore when we still lived in marital communion with the world began to darken and discolor. Dis-“ease” became our lot.

This dynamic becomes an existential crisis when our thinking follows this process to the end and we comprehend that it is ultimately a circular process that swallows itself and cannot break free to find real truth about the world or who we are. It is a road that, while opening freedom, ultimately comes to an end without resolution because in the sense-perceptible world everything depends upon everything else.

Thus, comes another choice, a huge life-altering choice. We either continue indefinitely in this fear-laden, teeth-gnashing that cannot bring peace, or in desperation and with faith hear how, from another world, there comes, yes, a call to a renewed marriage, to a renewed intimate communion with the world.

And so, the archangel seeks to awaken us to “freedom beyond freedom.” He points to our deep inner heart that yearns to wed itself to the flaming heart of the One whose Spirit can open doors to the Truth of who we the world are. Who will guide us, now as free human beings wearing new garments shining with color, to a love festival with God.