August 28th 2022.  Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   Luke 14:1,7-14

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

 

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GOSPEL   Luke 14:1,7-14

On a Sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honour at the table.
"When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honour.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
'Give your place to this man,'
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
'My friend, move up to a higher position.'
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Then he said to the host who invited him,
"When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbours,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, 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.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

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Bottom of Form

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

 

HOMILY TRANSLATION

1. We seek to quell our inner emptiness by grasping after possessions and acclaim. How beautiful it is when we humbly trust in the Lord’s providence and permit him to look after our wellbeing.

The Gospel passage from Luke is introduced by the first reading from the book of Ecclesiasticus which exalts the virtue of humility. “The power of the Lord is great, and by the humble he is glorified. In the lives of the humble, the Lord can manifest himself”. In the Gospel, Jesus observes how the Pharisees choose the best places at the table. The question is this: Who assigns our place in life? Is it us? Or is it the Lord? The humble can manifest the glory of the Lord because they place the outcome of their lives in the hands of God. They live, permitting the Lord to choose their recompense. Unfortunately, we tend to live trying to quell our inner anguish, our fear of emptiness, by seeking possessions, honours and acclaim in life. Let us allow the Lord to look after the recompense of our existence! How wonderful it is to live as children of a loving and providential Father, instead of seeking constantly to eke out our own fulfilment and meaning. How comforting it is to know that the Father in his justice will one day assign us to the place that is right for us!

 

2. Love is incompatible with competition. When we live in true loving communion with others we forget our own advancement, rejoicing in the success of others and lamenting those who are left behind  

How many lives are wasted by anxieties about one’s own role and position, in competition with others, in striving to promote oneself! How much energy is wasted trying to surpass others and in resenting those who are more successful than we are! This is not a beautiful life because it is not a life of love. Love and competition are not compatible. Love is about communion, reciprocal joy, sadness for those who are left behind. May this Gospel encourage us to trust in that which the Lord gives us, to be at peace with what we have, not to use others for the benefits with which we think they might provide us. It is terrible to discover that someone has used us in an instrumental way, that they do not love us but have used us. If the meaning of our lives was all about our own qualities, how desirable we are, how attractive we are, then what a hellish life that would be.

 

3. All of us are poor, blind and lame. Christ invites us to his banquet, making us children of the Father by virtue of our baptism. Our nobility, our greatness, has been won for us by Christ. We don’t need to calculate or scheme for our greatness. We just need to receive it with docility and trust.

The fact is that we are just as Jesus describes the “undesirables” in the Gospel - the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. All of us are blind about many things. The Lord invites us continually to the banquet of the Eucharist, and we come, poor, crippled, lame, and blind. We have nothing to offer him, but he invites us and the Father gives us the recompense of the resurrection. We are invited to this great meal and let us live according to the logic of his generosity. As the second reading says, we are invited to the assembly of the first-born, the privileged ones. In Christ, the only-begotten Son, we are all children of the Father, of noble stock, liberated from the poverty of our sins by the marvellous glory of God, won for us by Christ, hidden within us by virtue of our baptism, proclaimed by the sacraments. Let us enter into the banquet of God, an anticipation of the heavenly banquet. Let us live in communion with God, allowing him to assign our place to us. Let us stop calculating and scheming for our own exaltation. True life is not something that we grab with our own efforts. It is something to be received from God with docility and trust.