25th Sunday Year C 2022

 

 25^th. Sunday of Year (C)                     (Amos 8:4-7; 1^st. Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13)

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The parable given by Our Lord in today’s Gospel reading is  surprising in that He seems to approve of what appears at first hearing, to be dishonest behaviour. 

To quote a modern scholar: “Quite probably the steward was cancelling his own sizable commission.  He probably had been used to taking a cut at both ends, first by overcharging clients and second by embezzling his master’s goods.  Now the steward was giving his cut to others. Moreover, such unprecedented generosity in the name of the rich master would be received with gratitude and everyone would praise him (the master) as a hero and a benefactor.’

It had been what we might call a ‘very dodgy business’ but, taking everything into account, the master himself was satisfied to let things stand as they were, due to the fact that, although a considerable sum of his own money was missing due to his steward’s secret dealings, nevertheless, he, as master,  was secretly very pleased to find that he had gained a great deal in the people’s improved appreciation of himself.  And so, although somewhat reluctantly, he decided that it was best for him to accept his former steward’s conniving:

The master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.

Jesus Himself then went on to add in the same vein:

The children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

What Jesus wanted to commend to His disciples was the steward’s concern for his future.  Deeply involved in financial matters on behalf of his master, and not always to his master’s  greatest advantage – hence the ‘squandering’ charge brought against him -- he decided that he would have to indulge in even more ‘dodgy business’ when he realized that he was about to lose the job he would not be able to find again.   His one and only aim and purpose in life now was to provide, somehow, for his future.

Jesus, therefore, went on to picture a disciple of His engaged, likewise, in the dealings involving ‘unrighteous mammon’ -- for somebody has to manage the finances of today’s wicked world -- yet having sufficient Christian faith and personal acumen to behave himself in such a way as to help him find a welcome into the ‘heavenly home’ which was the aim of his Christian calling.

Jesus needed to speak in this startling way in order to draw attention to a great failing that still affects far too many Christians and Catholics today, who have no real desire or longing for heaven.  They are usually most positive with regard to the good things of this world – they want them now, as many and as much as possible; but they are, at best, only negatively positive as regards heaven.  They do not desire heaven, it does not attract them enough for that; but they are afraid to lose it because they have been told, and they believe, that it is the only place of joy hereafter, and so they keep the rules that are supposed to ultimately lead to heaven.  The joys of earth are concrete and well known, but the joys of heaven are very distant, they think; they quite rightly realize that heavenly joys are very different from and, they would say much ‘better’ than, those of earth, but they have never appreciated, thought on, prayed over, their faith enough to begin to positively long for those ‘better’ joys.

Jesus, therefore, I say, took up the ‘dodgy’ parable of the unscrupulous steward once again saying:

            I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth

‘I tell you, yes even you who are working with (someone else’s) dishonest wealth, I tell you, a committed disciple of Mine can do even such work without becoming dishonest himself; a true disciple of Mine can use his or her financial talents to work for the good of those suffering because such a disproportionate amount of the world’s wealth has become ‘dishonest wealth’  in the possession of so relatively few hands in today’s ‘adulterous and sinful world’.

As I have said, too many Catholics and Christians have too little spiritual ambition, or better put, too few spiritual aspirations, and they tend to justify  this lack of both love and hope by convincing themselves that they are not capable of doing all that seems to be necessary to attain a special place at the  heavenly banquet.  They have picked up this impression from stories told of fabulous saints who seemed able to do the most prodigious feats of courage and endurance, and give expression to the most ardent compulsions of love and faith; and, not understanding that such feats were the gift of God rather than due to the saint’s personal spiritual prowess, they considered them to be far above their own limited powers, and way beyond any hopes they could reasonably be expected to cherish for their own Christian fulfilment.

Thus Jesus was led to propose an alternative attitude:

He who is faithful in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and he who is dishonest in very small matters  is also dishonest in great ones.

That is, aspirations for heaven are not to be fed with great gestures: great gestures are another ‘dodgy business’ much like unrighteous mammon, they can so easily lead to spiritual pride.  On the contrary, the only truly healthy food for heavenly longings is faithfulness in the little things of life.

Now this teaching is exemplified in a saint so much appreciated and acclaimed as is St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, and yet,  it still asks for more than most are prepared to give.  For so many people have a secret ‘yen’ to be recognized and accepted as being someone, in some way, special, and indeed special in their human selves today, that is, as they are here and now.  To be so content with God as to be perseveringly satisfied with and faithful in what is least, demands a dying to self, a crucifying, which very, very few are willing to wholeheartedly embrace.  They long to see something resulting from their endeavours, to feel something happening in their prayers; for, though they might be able to accept others not recognizing them, they want, at least, to be able to think highly of themselves.  And so, they continue, at best, to limp along the ways of discipleship, and Mother Church finds herself being robbed of the fruit of her children’s growth in discipleship, and having, far too often, to see the holiness and vitality, the beauty and truth, of Jesus’ Gospel being given only the pseudo-worship of words that in no way give full expression to the power and glory of the Spirit Who is ever trying to lead her and all her children by surer and more authentic routes along the way of Jesus.

People of God, let us look to Jesus, and pray for His Holy Spirit again!  By so doing we should be able to restore our hope and renew our love, and we will, thereby, help revitalize Mother Church.  For Jesus Himself was abandoned by His few disciples, was generally regarded as a failure, and was publicly subjected to derision and contempt; and still He persevered, despite His repeated falls, in carrying His Cross all the way to Calvary for love of His Father, Who had sent Him here on this earth for our salvation.  We are, and aspire to become ever more truly, His disciples, and surely therefore, we can seek nothing better, desire nothing more, than that His Spirit should lead and sustain us along the way of Jesus especially in our loving attention to those little things of life recommended by Our Lord Himself as the surest way towards our heavenly home.

                                                                                     (2022)

           

 

24th Sunday Year C 2022

 

 24^th. Sunday Year (C)

(Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; 1Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10)

 

 

People of God, you may have felt today's first Gospel parable to be rather difficult to appreciate and perhaps even somewhat unfair:

I say to you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

However, the second word-picture Jesus went on to paint for us was much easier to understand.  In it, we learned of a woman who had lost a notable part of the little wealth she had, one of her ten coins, and we were told that:

When she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'  Likewise, Jesus said, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Why therefore did Jesus deliberately choose to make His first, and therefore more important little parable, more difficult to understand and perhaps even seem somewhat unfair?

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Was he trying to shock us, to jolt us?  And if so, why? 

Jesus spoke of what He knew, “joy in heaven"; what, however, does ‘joy in heaven’ mean for us who have no such heavenly experience?

Catholic theology tells us that heaven is where God is, as the All in all; and where the Holy Spirit of love -- proceeding from the Father to embrace the Son, and, flowing back from the Son in acknowledgment of His Father -- is the bond of unity whereby the three Divine Persons are one God.  The Father's love for the Son in the Spirit is the originating source of all joy in heaven and life on earth.

Behold!   My Servant (My Son) in whom My soul delights!   I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. (Isaiah 42:1)

Now, the Father willed to make manifest that love for that His Son now become incarnate when, at Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, He declared in the hearing of John the Baptist: 

This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; (Matthew 3:7)

and then again once more – this time on the Mount of Transfiguration – the Father’s voice rang out from an overshadowing cloud and said to Peter, James, and John:

This is My beloved Son, listen to Him! (Mark 9:7)

For His part, Jesus -- speaking to the intimate circle of His Apostles -- several times mentioned the bond of love uniting Himself to the Father:

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.

The Father and I are One.  (John 3:35; 10:30)

So, People of God, there is only one Holy Spirit of love, one joy, one rejoicing, in Heaven, it is the love of the Father, rejoicing, delighting, in His Son; it is the love of the Son responding wholeheartedly to the Father, by the Spirit.

Therefore, when we hear Jesus say:

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance,

He is speaking of the Father's rejoicing because one sinner has come to repentance through Jesus; that is, because one sinner, by acknowledging and repenting of his own sin and turning to Jesus, has rejected his own self-righteousness and has become – by the Spirit -- clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.  The Father rejoices in heaven over one such sinner who has thus been reformed into the likeness of Christ and has become, thereby, a son in the beloved Son.

St. Peter made this very clear in his address to the rulers, elders, and scribes gathered in Jerusalem, as did St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians:

Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.  This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'   Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:10-12)

Indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:8-9)                                                                         

Jesus gave us two parables: the first being most relevant to His Public Mission as Incarnate Lord and Saviour; and the second, more suited to the continuing mission of holy Mother Church. In the first parable, one sheep, led astray by the devil, wandered off from the flock; in the second, one coin was lost by a woman who should have kept it more carefully.

The one sheep, led astray by the devil’s hatred and cunning, could not have lived long in the desert.  Jesus -- the very Son-of-God-made-flesh – came, was sent, to save mankind from spiritual disaster: for they were sheep intended for divine pasturing, sheep so very, very, dear to God the Father, made – as they were -- in God’s own image and likeness.                  

I say to you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Being found by Jesus, means repentance for the sheep thus lost through sin.

The woman who had lost one of her coins, did her utmost to find what was lost, as Mother Church also – grieving souls lost through scandals of all sorts -- does her very best, by the grace of her worship and sacraments, by the prayers of her faithful, by the guidance and help of her saints and doctors and the fellowship of our guardian angels … to find what she should not have lost.

When she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbours together, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!'  Likewise, Jesus said, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The first parable tells us of the repentance of a sinner on seeing the face of, hearing the voice of, Jesus, the Saviour sent by His Father for this very purpose; the repentance of one humbly obeying the Holy Spirit of Jesus and learning from Him our Helper to recognize, rejoice in, yield himself to, Jesus, our Saviour indeed, but also my very own, Lord and Saviour.

The second speaks of repentance in the Church, sinners turning back as sorrowful children to the embrace of their loving Mother, pictured most truly by her who suffered a sword’s thrust in her own soul, Mary of Nazareth, Mother of Jesus, our dear Lady, our most loving Mother.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, John the Baptist, prepared the way for Jesus by preaching in the wilderness of Judea:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 3:1-2)

And Jesus Himself began His public ministry in a like manner:

From that time Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."           (Matthew 4:17)

And this call to repentance by Jesus was so urgent and so essential that He once declared in Jerusalem:

Unless you repent, you will all perish. (Luke 13:5)

Repentance means much more than just sorrow for the past; it requires a change for the future, as John the Baptist had told those who came to him:

Bear fruits worthy of repentance. (Luke 3:8)

Jesus took up from John and advanced to where John could not go.  He showed clearly what John's vague words "fruits for repentance" really meant, for the theme of Jesus' public ministry was: “Repent and believe the Good News” (Mark 1:15).   God gives us the grace of repentance for our pride-tainted, sin-scarred, lives, by bestowing on us the supreme gift of faith, whereby we aspire to live our future in loving witness and obedience to the Person and teaching of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour, as sons in the Son, by the Spirit, for the Father.

People of God, all this is implied by, and contained in, those "shocking" words of Jesus:

There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

We have rightly gathered here today to praise and glorify our God for His wondrous goodness to us in Jesus.   And, having begun to appreciate the beauty of His wisdom, we must also seek to learn from His truth; for the fact is that Jesus came, as He Himself said, to call not those self-styled, so-called, virtuous ones, approved and accepted by worldly standards, but those who were -- in their own eyes and before God -- sinful and desperately sick.

People of God, we are not holy, none of us; let us therefore learn from divine wisdom and accept that God rejoices not in our holiness so much as in our spirit of repentance; and that the only holiness that rejoices the Father is likeness to His Son, Jesus: a holiness which comes as a gift from the Spirit of Holiness Himself, and in which we can only share (not earn!) by means of true faith and loving commitment to Jesus.

Our first Catholic and Christian duty is to come before God in a spirit of repentance and to offer Him the only acceptable worship, the worship Jesus first offered on our behalf and for our salvation on Calvary, the worship He continues to offer -- Personally in heaven and sacramentally at every Mass here on earth -- the worship of His own self-sacrifice of love.  We should never come to Mass in order to get for ourselves, even though we hope to receive Holy Communion.  We must always come to Mass to offer: Jesus, in the first place, for our sins and the sins of the world, and then ourselves -- in and with Jesus -- to the Father, for His glory.  Only then can we fittingly come forward to receive Holy Communion in order that we might have grace to live out the offering we have just made.

People of God, if we allow the wisdom and truth of God to lead us to repentance and faith, then -- through the sacraments, above all through the Mass and the Eucharist -- God’s power and majesty can be effective in, and even through, our lives.

Therefore, let us praise our God today, let us admire and acknowledge the wisdom of His words and the beauty of His truth as contained in the Good News of Jesus; let us proclaim and give expression to the power and majesty of His saving grace; let us then finally thank Him for His goodness, putting all our hope and trust in the power of His Spirit at work in our lives.   Such worship is the wedding garment that will give us the right to take our seat at the heavenly banquet; it is the token of all those who belong to the flock of which Jesus is the true and only Shepherd of God’s chosen flock

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

    

 

 

23rd Sunday Year C 2022

 

23^rd. Sunday Year (C)

(Wisdom 9:13-18; Letter to Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33)

 

 

Onesimus, though not a Christian, had hoped to gain some advantage by persuading an honoured Christian teacher, Paul of Tarsus, to intercede with Philemon, a Christian, whose slave he was.  Onesimus’ initial confidence in his owner’s friend and “partner” clearly bore fruit, for Paul, having first guided him to become a Christian, then offered to make good whatever loss Philemon might have suffered by Onesimus’ flight. On this basis, Paul appealed to Philemon to receive his slave back into his household as he would receive Paul himself.

Neither Greek nor Roman slavery was usually a permanent state. Most commonly, an owner granted freedom to a faithful slave as a reward for his or her work and loyalty; this was frequently done through the owner’s will at death. While owners could punish disloyal slaves by including in their wills a clause prohibiting their heirs from ever letting such slaves go, there is also much evidence that others, while still living, had a variety of reasons for choosing to set free some of their slaves, not infrequently  about the age of thirty. Thus the question regarding Onesimus was most likely when, not if, Philemon planned to set him free.

The main features distinguishing 1st century slavery from that later practiced in the New World are the following: racial factors played no role; education was greatly encouraged (some slaves were better educated than their owners) and it enhanced a slave’s value; many slaves carried out sensitive and highly responsible social functions; slaves could own property (including other slaves!); their religious and cultural traditions were the same as those of the freeborn; no laws prohibited public assembly of slaves; and (perhaps above all) the majority of urban and domestic slaves could legitimately anticipate becoming free persons.

You will have noticed, I am sure, that Paul, in our second reading, was not like our modern "human rights" promoters and protagonists.  Neither was Peter in his first letter where he writes (2:18-21):

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh.  For this is commendable: if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief suffering wrongfully.  For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer -- if you take it patiently -- this is commendable before God.  For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.

Now, I do not in any way wish to detract from the noble work done by many good people for the human rights of the underprivileged and needy, however, there is something we should understand about the unwillingness of St. Paul, and indeed St. Peter, to adopt such an attitude with regard to the public institution of slavery in the situation of the early Church.

Perhaps we should note, first of all and just in passing, that there are some people who will promote good causes for reasons which, at times, are not so worthy as the causes they are promoting.  For example, some will promote a good cause because, basically, they like a good fight, in which case they are not so much promoters as protagonists; others love to see their own ideas, their own opinions, prevail, and to that extent they promote others' rights only in order to express their own ego, exert their own talents, or to extend their own sphere of influence.

However, there are indeed many who promote human rights from good motives and with the right intentions.  Then why not Peter, why not Paul, with regard to the social institution of slavery?  This is worth considering because we can perhaps learn, from both Peter and Paul, why so much apparently being said and done today, nevertheless, and despite many a fanfare of official praise and media proclamation, seems to bring forth little or no good fruit.  Surely it is one of societies' most anxious questions today why so much apparently well-intentioned legislation and so many, much-trumpeted, positive measures taken in society, are seemingly quite unable to stem the slide into ever-greater indiscipline, lawlessness, moral decadence, and even rank corruption?

In our Gospel reading you heard Our Blessed Lord declare:

If anyone comes to Me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

Our Blessed Lord unequivocally demands that we put Him first in our lives.  And, indeed, since He only wants this in order that we might thereby be enabled to live before God in Spirit and in Truth, and to love and serve each other aright, He goes on to show the folly of those who would seek discipleship on any other terms:

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.  Which of you, wishing to construct a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?  Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers should laugh at him and say, 'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'

Jesus takes this stand because He knows that if He Himself is not first in our lives, sin will, inevitably, continue to rule there.  And the empire of sin is never stagnant.   And when men -- ignoring or attempting to deny the existence of personal and public sin -- pretend, of their own assumed wisdom and presumed goodness, to prescribe remedies for deep social sicknesses, their tragic misunderstanding of human nature only compounds the suffering by deepening social confusion and anxiety, and fostering  hopelessness and despair among individuals.

St. Peter and St. Paul, however, faithfully put Jesus first, not only in the letters they wrote, but in their whole life and work; above all, in their work of establishing the Church as the Body of Christ.  The Church was being newly born, so to speak, into an alien world, and the very first thing Christians had to understand was that, by living their new lives with unwavering faith in Jesus and full confidence in the strength and inspiration of His most Holy Spirit, they could now transcend and would ultimately transform their earthly situation.  This new, God-given faith – being, as Jesus Himself put it, like the pearl of great price and the treasure found with great joy in the field – was known by the Apostles to be of such supreme value that they could in no way allow it to be subjected to worldly considerations or made secondary to earthly values.  For those blessed with the gift of faith even the bonds of slavery could in no way be allowed to overshadow the joy of their personal relationship with Christ or inhibit their commitment to, and confidence in the power of, His Spirit in their lives; whereby, the lowest and least fortunate, the most despised and worst abused, could work in and for the Church as much and as well as all others, confident that their faith could empower them to joyfully order their lives so as to bear effective witness to Christ and bring about the ultimate triumph of His Spirit.  In those early Christian house-churches there was no distinction between slaves and free, all were equally slaves of the Lord Jesus, and all were totally committed to and equally important for the triumph of the Kingdom of God over the pagan empire of Rome.  Indeed, such was their confidence that even direct opposition and persecution by the imperial power came to be seen as no insuperable obstacle to the new Faith.

Nevertheless, that imperial power could not be openly confronted, and therefore Peter and Paul , guided by the Spirit of Jesus their  Lord and Saviour, considered it their main duty to teach Christian disciples how to rightly worship the Father, and live each day by the light of Jesus’ Gospel truth in the power of His Spirit, thus growing ever more calm and assured in their Christian confidence and love.

And that, dear People of God, is still of supreme importance for us modern disciples of Jesus; for, if our Christian witness is to be effective before the world, He, Jesus, has to be first in our lives, not our presumed good works, supposed social influence, or desired personal popularity, :

Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.  (Mk. 12:30-31)

At this, the most basic and most important level, however, many Catholics are failing grievously today, for all too often they go to Mass out of mere habit or, at best, to receive a little-understood Communion. For those Christians envisaged by St. Paul and St. Peter, the supreme reason for our attendance at Mass should always be a will to give humble worship and most grateful praise and thanksgiving to God our Father by personally offering ourselves with Jesus in the sacrifice of Holy Mass -- Mother Church’s re-presentation, for God’s People of today and all ages  to come, of Jesus’ unique self-sacrifice on Calvary -- by the Spirit of Jesus ever abiding in the her and refreshing us anew at every such Mass, to the glory of God the Father.

Moreover, that intention to worship the Father should always be imbued with and embrace a desire to know Him and to follow Jesus ever better.  That is why, at Mass, the Scriptures are read and a homily given: because God's Word is, as Jesus Himself said, our bread of life.  And yet, how many Catholics hardly listen to its solemn proclamation, and make little effort appreciate a sermon, or address, given to explain it!

And so, the ultimate reason why our modern society is failing, and why Government initiatives fall so short of producing the sort of society we all want, is shown us by Our Lord's words at the end of our Gospel reading:

Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Here Jesus is speaking as the supreme doctor of human souls, seeking to find out what are the passions or possessions that have over-powered and taken possession of us, and which always harm, gradually lessen and demean, and ultimately seek to destroy, us. 

There are, however, some disciples of Jesus today who seem to be willing to endure hardship, suffering, and opposition, and even to go so far as to hate their own life, for Jesus.  And yet, despite all that, cling hard to something that is still theirs, something that modern man and woman find most difficult of all to give up, something which, for them, defines the essence of their own personal identity and being: namely, their own opinion and their own will.

So many apparently good Catholics, good Christians, fail God, the Church, and indeed, themselves too, because, deep down, everything has to pass the test of their own self-approval and that of others; with the result that they feel the need, at every serious juncture in their faith-life, to review once again their own belonging to Jesus and His Church; to re-negotiate, so to speak, their own agreement with Him and His Church; and only after significant hesitation will they feel themselves able to accept anew the costs involved and signal their continuing but conditional commitment.  Now to such people, Jesus declares without any concession:

No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.  (Luke 9:62)

People of God, having ourselves been most wonderfully blessed in Jesus and in the Church, and now being faced with the ravages of sin bringing shame upon the Church and turmoil and catastrophic suffering all over the world, we should strive to live our lives ever more and more with Jesus for the Father.  Ultimately, the only life worth living for a human being is one of loving gratitude and joyous commitment to the glory of God the Father, in union with Jesus our Lord, under the rule and power of the Holy Spirit.  Only by faithfully walking along that way can we hope to find the fullness of being for which we long.  As was said in the book of Wisdom:

(Only when You) sent your Holy Spirit from on high, were the paths of those on earth made straight and people learned what pleases you.

22nd Sunday Year C 2022

 

22^nd. Sunday, Year (C)

(Sirach 3:17s., 20, 28s.; Hebrews 12: 18s., 22-24a; Luke 14:1, 7-11)

 

The story about the place of honour at the wedding feast seems, of itself, to be merely worldly advice; indeed, it seems to lead to a rather hypocritical semblance of humility, with the subject publicly choosing the lowest place whilst not only thinking himself worthy of a higher place, but indeed planning to receive honour in the sight of the other guests on being called higher by the host.  And yet, Our Blessed Lord uses such worldly scheming as a parable for heavenly truth and experience.

This, first of all, teaches us that our basic human attitudes and feelings are orientated towards the good ... that our human nature is not fundamentally vitiated.   Though we are indeed weak, ignorant, and sinful, our human nature is by no means totally corrupted, nor is our natural sensitivity without a measure of spiritual  awareness.  We have been and are made in the image of God, and this nature of ours is disturbed in the depths of its being by sin which, fundamentally, does not suit us.

The story told by Jesus about the natural embarrassment one would feel on being dismissed from the highest seat and sent to the lowest, is concerned not only with the resulting public humiliation, but also with the morally good response of deep personal embarrassment on being thus publicly obliged to admit one’s overweening pride and self-esteem on having originally arrogated the place of honour at the banquet table.

Human nature is made for God and can at times warn us of the presence of sin – something opposed and foreign to our true good -- when our explicit thinking is unable or unwilling to detect or recognize such a presence.   For example, most young people will instinctively feel embarrassment or even a certain fear at the first wrongful sex activity, whereby their basically good human nature warns them even when their minds and consciences are not sufficiently aware or enlightened; and how, indeed, can they subject themselves to their very first experience of dangerous drugs leading to  experiences with unknowable personal consequences without instinctive trepidation?  Adults also may make ‘faux-pas’ or gaffs in public and feel intense embarrassment as a result; and often enough, such feelings are not merely due to an anticipated loss of face, but also to the awareness of having originally spoken foolishly out of personal vanity, or fulsomely in a quest for human acceptance and praise.

Human nature is, I repeat, still good and sensitive enough to give authentic warning signals -- truly, intimations of immortality -- to our minds and explicit thinking.  Unfortunately, however, we can so quickly learn to resist and confuse our residual integrity, fighting against or even rejecting our instinctive modesty and honesty, with the result that even prostitutes and murderers, thieves, traducers, and traitors, become hard-faced as the Scriptures and daily-life experience in the world today tell us, and such people will say, ‘Where is our sin; what harm are we doing, we’re not hurting anyone who doesn’t deserve it are we? 

But why, after wrongly choosing the highest place at the feast, in our Gospel story, would the person concerned have to betake himself to the lowest seat of all?  Here  Our Blessed Lord has adapted the real-life situation somewhat in order to fit it for its present function as a parable of heavenly truth.  For, before God, none of us can, in truth, say that we are more worthy than anyone else: first of all, because we rarely – indeed, at times, will not – recognize the sin in our own lives, and secondly because we can never penetrate the hearts of others.  Therefore, the only attitude for a conscientious Christian is to take the lowest seat of all.  For greatness in the Kingdom of God is determined not by our opinion of our own worth or that of anyone else, but by God’s judgment, as St. Paul says (1 Corinthians 4:1-5):

With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.  I do not even judge myself.  I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.  It is the Lord Who judges me.  Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, Who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.  Then every man will receive his commendation from God. 

This part of our Gospel passage for today is rounded off by a general statement which seems to have been a favourite saying of Our Lord:

Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the man who humbles himself will be exalted.

Pride, self-assertion in ordinary human society is both bad manners and bad policy, but in the Kingdom of God it is totally inadmissible.  There, ‘pride goes before a fall’, and there is only kind of privilege and dignity: the kind that comes to those who do not seek it, but rather seek to love and serve God and are content to walk humbly and at peace with their neighbour.  The advice given in our Gospel reading about who to invite to your parties, is not meant to be exclusive of anyone, rich or poor, close friends or chance passers-by; the hospitality advised by Jesus is one which seeks to give generously, not to get, surreptitiously.  To all who are in need -- and the rich can be in need also – we should give, if our conscience calls and as our conscience guides; give, that is, in generous simplicity not with calculating discernment.

To close, let me offer you a story, from the early Desert Fathers, of one who knew how to give, when faced with need, and what is much more, he learned how to humble himself in his giving:

Before Abba Poemen’s group came to Scetis, there was an old man in Egypt who enjoyed considerable fame and repute.  But when Abba Poemen’s group went up to Scetis, men left the old man to go to see Abba Poemen. Abba Poemen was grieved at this and said to his disciples, ‘What is to be done about this great old man, for men grieve him by leaving him and coming to us who are nothing?  What shall we do, then, to comfort this old man?’  He said to them, ‘Make ready a little food, and take a skin of wine and let us go to see him and eat with him.  And so we shall be able to comfort him.’  So they put together some food, and went.

 When they knocked at the door, the old man’s one remaining disciple answered, saying, ‘Who are you?’  They responded, ‘Tell the abba, it is Poemen who desires to be blessed by him.’  The disciple reported this to the old man who sent him back telling him to say to Poemen, ‘Go away, I have no time.’  Nevertheless, in spite of the heat, they persevered, saying: ‘We shall not go away till we have been allowed to meet the old man.’  Seeing their humility and patience, the old man was filled with compunction and opened the door to them himself.  Then they went in and ate with him.  During the meal he said, ‘Truly, not only what I have heard about you is true, but I see that your works are a hundred-fold greater than those reports’, and from that day he became their friend, and the beauty of mutual appreciation and respect was restored among the brethren.     (2022)