Gospel for September 1, 2013
Sunday, 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 14:1, 7-14
One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.
Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to take the places of honor. And he said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited, and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you: ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!
Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you: ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
Jesus also addressed the man who had invited him and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid. When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they can’t repay you; you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the upright.”
REFLECTION:
The opening verse of our
gospel today brings us to a context of a social meal. . In the Gospel of Luke,
he calls this particular event as table fellowship. It is very interesting to
explore this particular event because meal is a good avenue to show a particular
cultural interaction. This particular
practice actually reflects a map of economic discrimination and social
hierarchy. At the same time, Jesus also uses this occasion of table talk as a
mode of teaching.
The first point that we can reflect in our Gospel today is
the virtue of humility. Knowing one’s place is a condition for discipleship. The scribes and Pharisees often treated
themselves as righteous people because they think that they observe the law and
therefore they deserve the place of honor. They often think that they are more worthy
than anybody else in the eyes of God. Jesus
is reminding them through this parable that honor is not generated by oneself;
it is not acquired by birth or it is acquired “in the eyes of others”. We are not in the position to know about
ourselves and how worthy are we in the eyes of God.
Many of us today are like the scribes and the Pharisees. We
usually put invisible barriers that separate us from other. We say to
ourselves; I go to mass. I give money for charity. I help my neighbor. I
sacrifice during lent season. I don’t criticize other people. And we think that
we are better than other people. We failed to recognize that our hope as Christians
is anchored on our dependence on God’s mercy. Let us not be proud of ourselves
and let us not seek honor in front of other people.
The second point that we can reflect in our Gospel today is
the virtue of Generosity. The Pharisees have a practice of inviting people that
can likewise return an invitation of the same manner. Jesus urges the host to extend his hospitality
to new groups: the poor, the widow, the blind and those who are outside from
the village which are regarded as unclean. Jesus is more concern about on the
socio-economical aspect of the relationship rather than purity.
At some point in life, we may be also like the host of the
dinner, we choose the people to whom we extend our help or our invitation. We invite or relate on those people to whom
we can expect something from. Sadly our
Filipino virtue of “UTANG NA LOOB” is commonly abused to ones advantage. We
help and we expect that they in return will help us also. Jesus is asking from a continuous flow of
generosity from us. Let us extend our generosity
to the people whom we least expect that can give back to us.
Let us pray to God for the virtue of humility to accept our
own limitation and weakness and become humble towards other people and to God. Let us also ask the Lord to teach us to
become more generous to other people, especially to least of our brothers and
sister. MANGYARI NAWA…
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