TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
1 SEPTEMBER 2019
The
invitation which Jesus receives to dine at the home of one of the leading
Pharisees is not a cordial one. He has
been observing the Pharisees and their focus on externals. Inviting him to dine with them gives them an
excuse to observe him. And he does not
disappoint! This dinner is being hosted
on a Sabbath, and there is a man in front of him suffering from dropsy. Odds are good that the Pharisee has placed
this man here to see what Jesus would do.
Jesus shows compassion and cures him.
In curing him, Jesus knows that the Pharisees are condemning him,
because he has violated the law against working on the Sabbath.
To their
unspoken criticism, Jesus tells this parable.
In his culture, people put great importance on being honored and
avoiding shame. At a very practical
level, Jesus is teaching manners to dinner guests. If a guest chooses the place of honor at the
table, that guest avoids being shamed if the host moves him or her to the
lowest place when a more important person shows up. If the guest chooses the lowest place, the
host can bring honor to that person by inviting him or her to move higher.
But Jesus
is not a first century Emily Post teaching manners for table guests. He is the Incarnate Word of God who has
humbled himself, taken on human form, and is about to humble himself to the
point of death. In humbling himself, he
trusts that he will be exalted through the resurrection. As he continues to travel to Jerusalem to
face the ultimate humiliation of his passion and cross, he is teaching us, his
disciples, how to be humble as we walk together to the New and Eternal
Jerusalem. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus
has been the guest at many meals on his way to Jerusalem. In our day, he has become the host, inviting
us to dine with him at this Altar, where he feeds us with his Body and
Blood. In giving us these two parables,
he teaches us the importance of being humble as we embrace the Strategic Five
Year Plan of our parish and learn how to become evangelists in our culture.
First, he
teaches us that we do not need to feel important. We tend to want to bring attention to
ourselves, to let other people see how good we are. As servants of the Gospel, we are not
perfect. We are sinners who know God’s
mercy. Truly humble disciples look
beyond the need to be recognized and trust that we truly matter to God and to
those who love us.
Second,
humble disciples live with open arms.
Once we have been fed by the Body and Blood of Christ every Sunday, we
are sent to open our arms to be humble servants. In serving the needs of others in this parish
and in our local community, we become witnesses to the One who washed the feet
of his disciples and suffered the humiliation of the cross.
Finally,
humble disciples reach out to others to let them know that the Lord is calling
them to join us at this Altar. We are an
evangelizing parish when we continue to set aside 5% of our income to give to
our sister parish of Saint Adalbert, even though we have assumed a large debt. We set aside another 3 1/2% for those who
come to us in need. We continue to
support the Saint Vincent de Paul Society with our financial gifts and gifts of
food on the first Sunday of each month.
We host Father Larry and give to his parish, even though they can never
repay us in gifts of treasure. We remain
humble servants when we volunteer for projects that benefit those who cannot
repay us.
Humble disciples
do not deny the many gifts that God has given us. Instead, we thank God for those gifts and put
them at the service of God’s Kingdom in our midst. In spreading the Good News of that Kingdom,
we invite others to join us as we walk together to the New and Eternal
Jerusalem.
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