Fitting in seems to be a preoccupation for people today. Wearing the right clothes, driving the right car, listening to the right music. I overheard a young woman tell her friend that if she drove a specific kind of car she’d never ride with her again. Another person turned their nose up at a free device for their computer because it was the wrong shade of green. Whereas we in the modern world have our own ideas of honor, often we miss the concept of honor and shame in the world of Jesus’ time. In today’s parable, there is a depth of that, an important underlying of a man who sends out invites to those people who were popular, the “in-crowd.”
There is the idea of a double invite in that culture. First, he invites them, then he reminds them of their invitation. That’s important to notice. He didn’t just spring it on them at the last minute. These individuals knew about the dinner for a long time, they were being reminded that it was ready. Instead, they come up with excuses why not to attend. Material possessions, employment opportunities, and even family duties all are used to say “I just can’t make it.” It’s more than just saying something came up, it’s saying I knew about it, your servant warned me in the past, but even today when the offer is fresh and in front of me… I’m too busy.
So the man throwing the feast does something daring, something unheard of. Instead of being shamed by those who he associates with, He, in turn, begins to associate with those who have no honor, those who bring Him nothing but themselves. “The poor, the crippled, and the lame.” The broken and humbled, the sinner who only gets the invite by grace, and grace alone. The outsider, the ones living on the edge of the inside. The rejected and discouraged, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the addict. He looks for those who humble themselves enough to come to sit at the table, with no hope for honor and no chance to repay Him.
Something else we miss when we read it in English is that last little line. “For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.” (Luke 14:24). Up until this point the word you that has been used points to the servant, it’s a singular you and directed to just him. In verse 24, Luke changes the verb that Jesus uses for you to a plural one that points to everyone reading, to everyone listening to Jesus speak. Almost as if Jesus is saying “Hey, you’ve been invited too. Are you humble enough to accept my invitation? Or do you have somewhere better to be as well?”
Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans shows us what it looks like when we humble ourselves enough to even turn our eyes to the banquet. We put our heads down and work diligently for the kingdom, dropping our walls in order to let Jesus in. Above all we let our love be sincere. We let the peace of Christ comfort us because He is the one who can offer us true peace. It is only when we push our own ego out of the way, that we can even begin to glimpse the invitation that is calling to us every moment of every day. When our soul becomes like a weaned child…
That’s an odd statement, isn’t it? All of us had to be weaned at some point. Each child is different though. When the weaning process begins it can be quite a task. Crying, pouting, screaming… All because the child is focused on itself. All that matters at that point is the food, the comfort, the pleasure of life that they think is being pulled away from them. The child at some point has to begin to trust, to realize that its mother knows best and that there is something better to come. That’s when the child begins to calm down, to wait for the mother to introduce it to the new food, the better meal. The sumptuous fare of the banquet. The weaned child sits on his mother’s lap waiting, trusting, counting on her to provide something even greater than he had before.
And so it is with us. Sometimes we fight so hard that we kick and scream while God patiently watches, carries us, or in most of our cases has to drag us on down the beach. It’s when we stop fighting, sit patiently in our great parent’s lap, that we truly get to sit down at the banquet. Oh, what a meal that will be! Do we trust our mother, the Church, when she takes away the things we think we enjoy so much? Or do we fight and scream, trying to hold on to them, not realizing the beauty of what she has to offer, the meal she is leading us to, the Eucharist itself?
A reflection on the readings for November 5th, 2019: Tuesday in the 31st Week in Ordinary Time