August 29, 2010
Sunday

The Word Sir 3,17-18.20.28-29 / Heb 12,18-19.22-24 / Lk 14,1.7-14

On a sabbath he 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 embarassment 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 everyone 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."

In other words…

Because the coordinator was late some of the graduation guests occupied what they thought were non-reserved seats. Some ushers, realizing the mistake, requested the guests to please vacate these for the graduates themselves. One of them felt so aggrieved he threatened to sue for undue embarrassment. Some felt distress at this; others more calmly advised that this was just a heated reaction. "How very un-Filipino," was an observation made by a third.

How very unbefitting of a follower of Jesus, so the Gospel of today would read for some. As with many of his parables, Jesus was taking common wisdom and relating it to the kingdom. Jesus was not referring to good manners, or social strategy; this is not a parable about being a good guest primarily. It is also about guests assuming more about themselves in relation to their hosts or other guests – if one reads "God" instead of "host" and Gentiles as the other guests. In the kingdom we do not assign our places; they are assigned to us by God.

A careful reading will show that if the first parable focused on the guest, the second parable highlights the host. I have a niece who now and then celebrates her birthday by treating a batch of disadvantaged children to lunch at Jollibee. She feels good doing good, which proves the saying, "virtue is its own reward." But she is not unaware of the deeper point, so clear in Jesus’ message: the only way you can understand God is to act like God – not in the sense of power, but in the sense of unconditional love, of sharing that seeks no return at all. This is a point that is readily made cognitively; it is another thing to try at least once in one’s life, to be like God as dinner host to persons we could never imagine as guests at our table.

- Fr. Diony Miranda, SVD (USC President, Cebu)