Jesus has a strange way of looking on whom to invite and who are the most important.

 

Twenty  Second Sunday in OT  C  2022

 

Today can be fittingly called HUMILITY SUNDAY judging from the perspective of the first reading and the Gospel. Please take a close look at the word humility.  The word comes from the Latin humilis which means lowly, close to the earth.  The root is actually humus which means soil.  Hence to be humble is seen as being down-to-earth.  Humility goes with selflessness.

 Sirach in the first Scripture reading says that God loves the humbles and detests the proud.   The more we humble ourselves, we find favor with God.

We see in today’s Gospel what is often true in the parables of Jesus is that we go from the known to the unknown.  In this parable, the known for all is that we are familiar with eating together at table.  What is the unknown is that Jesus is pointing to is two very important lessons on what the kingdom of God is like. 

So we ask what is God’s kingdom like?

First Lesson:  Jesus is observing how the guests are choosing places of honor at the banquet table.  Where we are seated at the banquet is indicative of your place of honor.  For those of us invited to wedding banquets, the bride, or perhaps the bride’s mother, has somewhat carefully chosen who seats with whom at the wedding banquet. The places of honor are somewhat predetermined.

There is a side of all of us that welcomes a bit of honor and recognition.

Jesus invites us to take the lowest place and hopefully the host will invite you to come higher.  But please notice that this parable is not about clever maneuvering so that you will be honored when the host invites you to come up higher.

Rather Jesus is challenging that side of us that wants to be honored and recognized.

The meaning of the parable can be found by recalling the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples in which Jesus knelt down and put a towel around his waist and washed the feet of his disciples.  Jesus gave the example to the apostles of how they were to be His followers.

 

 The first lesson from this parable is that his disciples, rather than jockeying for places of honor, were to humbly serve one another.  The way of humble service is to characterize table fellowship in the kingdom of God.

It takes humility to know God and to love Him and our neighbors.  It takes humility to pray.  It takes humility to repent from one’s sins.  It takes humility to say: “I am sorry.”

What do you think?  Is it true that there is abundance of pride but scarcity of humility in politics and in all the ways we try to climb the ladder of success?  It takes humility to let go and to let God.  Our salvation was an act of humility.

St Paul said:  “Though he was in the form  of God he did not deem equality with God with something to be grasped but he humbled Himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient even unto death, death on the cross.

Humility is a garment we all need to wear.  There is a true story that during a presentation at a certain University, a student was holding his paper at his left hand while making his presentation.  Sighting him, a professor scolded him harshly and asked him to hold the paper in his right hand and sit down.  The young man raised his right arm for everyone to see that half of it was cut off.  The professor seeing this came to the boy knelt down before him and begged to be forgiven because he did not know about his disability.  This act of the professor touched and changed the life of not only the boy but many of the students.

God is not interested in what we are but in who we are --  that is where humility can be found.

The second extremely important lesson can be found in the latter part of the parable when Jesus says: “When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.”

 This second lesson speaks to the hospitality of God that the Church is to embody.  All are welcome without prejudice in the kingdom of God.  Jesus is the embodiment of God’s hospitality.

How do we as a parish community welcome the outcasts into our parish community?  Do we welcome all people without regard to their race, their sexual orientation, their marital status or whatever there is about a particular person?

And do we feel at home eating where the poor, the crippled, and the outcasts eat or is this below our status and way of life?  This is a challenge, is it not, to go beyond our comfort zone.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus has a strange way of looking on whom to invite and who are the most important.  The point is everyone is invited to the banquet of Jesus.

As we gather for this Eucharistic meal today, we reflect on how we have gathered for this meal.  Do we see each other as brothers and sisters?   Do we see ourselves as servants of each other?  Do we see ourselves as the servants of all who are poor?  Are all welcome to this table of the Lord?

If there is a bit of the parable that makes us uncomfortable or challenged beyond our comfort zone, we have understood well the message of Jesus.

 

Have a Blessed Day.