Scramble For The High Table
1. A Good Place for Everyone
2. Know Your Place
Introduction
1. A Good Place for Everyone
How do we regard other people and ourselves in relation to them? Do we look down on others, at least on some, and hold ourselves as more important, people to be noted and given honours? The message of today is: In the Kingdom there is a good place for everyone. If there is to be any preference, it is for the poor, the disabled, the humble, for they are given the first place by God, they are the favourites of Jesus. Jesus asks us here and now: What place do we take and what place do we give to others?
2. Know Your Place
Today our Lord Jesus invites us to his table. He knows that we are people with faults, people who have hurt him and others, by the wrong we did or the good we didn’t do. Knowing who we are he still loves us and invites us, as his friends, to join him at his table. Let us humbly take part in his meal and ask the Lord to make us more open to the humble, to people who have erred, and to the poor.
First Reading: The Greater, the Humbler
We cannot be open to God’s grace unless we put aside our pride. People appreciate lack of pretense and they see through our boasting.
1 Reading: Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favour with God. What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not. The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive ear is the joy of the wise. Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11
R. (cf. 11b) God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor.
The just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
Sing to God, chant praise to his name;
whose name is the LORD. R.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity. R.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy. R.
Second Reading: Our Savior and Covenant Is Jesus
Through Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, Christians, even on earth, are already as if living as citizens of heaven.
2 Reading: Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Brothers and sisters: You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them. No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
Alleluia: Matthew 11:29ab
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Take my yoke upon you, says the Lord,
and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Come Up Higher, My Friend
In his kingdom, God invites those who recognize their lowliness and need of salvation. Likewise, the follower of Christ invites the poor and the humble.
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.”
Commentary
There are people who have to announce every little thing they do and in some manner, have disdain for what others do. There is an adage that says the greatest souls tend to be the humblest. It is not a humbleness that denies the good qualities that God has given, but a humbleness that recognizes them as gifts.
Humility has the same Latin root as the word ‘humus’, which means ground. One who is humble is close to the ground and is realistic (down-to-earth), knowing just how to approach real problems, limitations, and needs of the people in their surroundings. A humble person does not climb over others or push their will, prestige or fame; a humble person is not one who goes out saying that he or she is unworthy, doesn’t know anything, and is self-deprecating. This person, no matter how humble, is unjust because he or she does not recognize the talents, qualities, and gifts that God has given them.
Such great people, in other words, humble and simple, are those who know that all they are and have is in the service of others. Nothing we have is by our own right or merit, but the grace of God; and we do not possess it for ourselves, but for others. Paul says, “by the grace of God I am what I am.” Surely it is difficult to maintain this attitude, because this society gives much importance to certain people: civil authorities and ecclesial authorities, professors, doctors, lawyers or famous stars. Perhaps even people with a lot of money are considered important… even if the money was obtained by exploiting others; but the Gospel makes it perfectly clear: for Jesus, those who serve others are the ones who are important.
Blessing
If we want the Lord to live among us,
there is only one place that fits us:
the last place, the place of people
who know how to serve.
There is no room for pretending
to be what we are not.
And before God, we are all small,
we cannot claim any merit.
May this attitude be ours
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with one another
God’s way of peace and love. R/ Thanks be to God.