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 honors? 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 favorites of Jesus. Jesus asks us here and now: What place do you take and what place do you give to others?
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.
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.
First Reading: Sirach 3:17-20,28-29
Child, work hard but don’t trumpet your success; you’ll be ranked above the one who gives but expects something in return. No matter how great you become, humble yourself at every opportunity; you’ll find appreciation in the presence of God. Many think they’re high and mighty, but God reveals his mysteries to the humble.
A sinful heart heaps sin upon sin. A proud heart has no remedy. A fruitless heart suffers from canker and rot. But there’s a remedy. The wise heart understands the words of the wise, the cocked ear desires wisdom. The well-instructed heart refrains from sin; in works of justice it meets with success.
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24
Unlike your ancestors, you didn’t come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—to hear God speak. The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop.
No, that’s not your experience at all. You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides. The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens. It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just. You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God. He is the Mediator of this covenant. The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.
Gospel: Luke 14:1,7-14
One time when Jesus went for a Sabbath meal with one of the top leaders of the Pharisees, all the guests had their eyes on him, watching his every move.
He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Red-faced, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.
“When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
Then he turned to the host. “The next time you put on a dinner, don’t just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be—and experience—a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God’s people.”
Prayer
Our Father, you who lift up the lowly;
your Son Jesus came into our world
as the servant of all and he cherished the helpless.
With him, make us respect and appreciate
the weak, the defenseless and the humble,
and accept to be numbered among them.
Dispose us to help them and to seek their help.
For you have poured out your mercy on us too
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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