Gospel : Luke 14 : 1 – 14
Year C
Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees….
How often the Gospel notes Your Presence at a meal, Lord! Long before this, You had commenced Your apostolic activity with a wedding feast, and You ended it with the Paschal feast. Your enemies never refrain from mocking You: A glutton and a drunkard! (Lk.7:34). They do not want to understand Your message.
During a meal, what is important is not the eating, but the being together. To share a meal is to express the joy of being reunited, it is to share friendship, life, ideas, projects, worries …. For You, Jesus, this is exactly the deep sense of Your meals. You want to tell of Your love for everyone. You want to bring everyone the Good News. Also, because You have come to save all humanity, You accept all invitations that come Your way, those of the poor or the rich, those of the sinners and those of the “Righteous”, those of Your friends and those of people who want to entrap You.
In Your parables, You will often use the image of a meal to tell of the love of our Father in heaven for each of us: The Kingdom of heaven is like a wedding feast …. All are invited, the wicked and the good; the only condition required is the Wedding Garment: to accept Your love (Mt.22).
And You chose a meal as a means of remaining with us. The Eucharist is the wonderful banquet to which You invite us. There, You unceasingly share with us Your Word and Your Bread. You tell us repeatedly of Your faithful love; You strengthen the bonds of our Covenant with You; You make us live with You, as children of God…. as brothers and sisters together…..
The guests picked the places of honour ….
From now on, if we really want to understand it, there is no longer ‘places to choose from’. There is only one place: the one You occupy and want to share with us: so that where I am, you may be also: in the heart of the Father! This is the eternal banquet announced, and commenced, by Your meals on earth ….
