Gospel: Lk 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 honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. 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 neighbors, 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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It used to be that meals among all peoples were ways of cementing friendships. When one was invited to a home for a meal one entered into a certain level of intimacy. In our more complex world, meals have come to have different meanings. There are breakfast meetings and business lunches etc which carry no commitment with them. Today people are normally very careful about whom they invite into their homes for meals for meals bring, however unconsciously it may be, commitments with them.
For the people of the middle east of Jesus’ time this commitment meant a reciprocal invitation and so they were also very careful both about inviting and accepting invitations especially if they realized that returning the favor was more than they could or cared to handle (see Luke 14:15-24). Moreover, inviting people who could return the favor was viewed as cultural suicide. Such guests—the poor, crippled, lame, and blind were clearly people of a lower social status than the host. To associate with such was to dishonor one’s own status. One’s social equals would then shun future invitations, and a host of means would be socially ruined. Jesus was therefore being totally counter-cultural when he tells the host who invited him to dinner to invite not those of high social status, not those who could improve one’s social standing in the community but those who had nothing to offer in return.
Among the ways in which Eucharist has been understood during the history of the Church is Eucharist as Meal; Sacred meal. In this understanding of Eucharist, we the present day disciples of Jesus are the Eucharistic people par excellence. We are the people of the Meal, but contrary to Meal seen as a means of discrimination and social division, the Eucharistic meal is Source, sign and means of unity. Nowhere else in the world do persons of varying social, economic, and ethnic groups eat and drink at the same table, the Eucharistic table, the table of the Lord. This is a symbol of what the world can be and is meant to be. The Eucharistic meal, source and sign of the harmony which God wants for the world, is different from other meals because it represents (makes present today) that action of Jesus through which sin, the cause and source of disharmony was conquered. Other meals, consciously and unconsciously often promote discrimination and division.
As a Eucharistic people we are thus called to be agents of that harmony which is God’s purpose for the world. Jesus’ call to the host, a leading Pharisee, to invite not his wealthy neighbours but rather “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” is thus a call to be an agent of harmony. It is to this that we commit ourselves every time we participate in Eucharist. All the saints took this call seriously. Through their works of education, health care, social services and prayer, they sought to fulfill God’s purpose which is harmony. You and I are called to do no less.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, your purpose for the world, since the beginning of creation has been harmony. Unfortunately we so often twist the meaning of actions so that they promote not harmony but selfishness, discrimination and division. Help us your people to do what unites rather than divides. Help us to be agents of that harmony which you have always desired for the world. As a Eucharistic people help us to live in our daily lives what we proclaim each time we celebrate Eucharist. We ask this through the intercession of your Son Jesus and the prayers of Mary, Our Mother. Amen.
