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 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.”
Homily
I know a man who inherited a small but moderately successful firm. He was aware that he did not possess all the skills necessary to run the organization that he had inherited and so he set about choosing the most skilful people in the group so that he could delegate responsibility to them. He earned their respect because he acknowledged his ignorance about so many things in the business. He respected their decisions, He compensated them well. He earned their loyalty. Today that business is a huge success and that man is recognized as a great and successful CEO.What characterized that man was a great sense of his own worth as a human being and so he had no need to pretend that he knew or was good at everything. People like that CEO have no need to build themselves up through possessions and/or boasting etc. As we say, “they are very happy in their own skins” and the sin of arrogance is not part of their make-up. Such persons are also aware of the worth of others, no matter what walk of life they come from and so are quite happy to delegate responsibility and to fraternize with them.
Silagra is an anti-impotent pill used to enhance the male organ cialis sale online size and get the desired size. Just as women seek breast enlargement to look more attractive, men also look to enhance get free viagra their penis size to better their performance in between the sheets. The medicine is offered online at cheap rates with superior quality. cialis generic viagra find out for more info now The vital ingredient in both these medicines in Sildenafil Citrate, which improves the flow of blood to the penile organ is the main reason for a man to be sexually moved. generic viagra 25mg is just successful on the off chance that you are experiencing heart, liver or kidney illness Just utilize this pharmaceutical just on the off chance that you are experiencing any sort of leadership management training or motivational.
In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus teaches us the above with a wisdom saying. He tells his audience, invited guests at a dinner of one of the leading Pharisees “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.” In other words he is telling his guests that they must not assign greatness to themselves; Greatness must be assigned by others. When we assign greatness to ourselves, or when we believe that greatness comes to us because of social or political fortunes, we run the risk of finding out in rather unpleasant ways that others have a totally different opinion about us.
And so the wisdom of Jesus’ saying, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”becomes all the more apparent. This is not a call to a false humility however. It is in fact a call to recognize the gifts and talents which God has given to us. It is to recognize moreover that it is God who has given them to us. It is to recognize that these gifts and talents are not ours because of some inherent greatness in ourselves. It is also a call to recognize our limitations. The recognition of our gifts and talents as well as our limitations and the recognition of the giftedness and limitations of others is the prerequisite for building harmonious institutions, for the strength of one compensates for the weakness of the other. Such recognition is the beginning of wisdom. It is this recognition which made the Virgin Mary exclaim, “All generations will call me blessed” and then she adds, “because the Almighty has done great things for me.” True humility is the opposite of arrogance. It is this attitude which made Elizabeth of Hungary, a saint; It is this attitude which allowed Mother Theresa to walk amidst Kings and Presidents and still return to her beloved people dying on the streets. This is the attitude which distinguishes true greatness from arrogance and no saint is distinguished by arrogance. As we meditate on this Gospel passage let us thank God for the witness of true humility in the saints and other persons whom we know. Their witness tells us that true humility is possible and that the truly humble live happy and peaceful lives because they do not live trying to prove how good they are. They are satisfied with what God has given them.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, we live in a world in which people seek to gain “the places of honour at the table. Help us to understand that we must not choose the place but that we must be invited to it. Help us to understand that we are invited to the places of honour not because of the external trappings but because of the internal beauty which we carry within us. Help us like Mary to understand that true greatness is ours only because the Almighty has done great things for us. We ask this through the intercession of the same Mary our Mother and your Son, Jesus. Amen
