The 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 28, 2022

Luke 14:1, 7–14

On a sabbath Jesus 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 embarrassment 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.”

Most days, the Lord Jesus and his Apostles ate on the road or outside the towns they visited.  A few of them, probably two, would go into the town and buy dried fish, bread, and perhaps figs from the market with funds provided by the women who accompanied them (cf. Luke 8, 2-3).  They would take their main meal during the midday, the custom of that time and place.  The Lord would thank the Father for what they had, and they would eat.  Jesus seldom sought a house where he could eat — the major exception being his eating at the house of Zachaeus (cf. Luke 19, 5).  He did accept invitations to eat in houses, but mostly in order to teach the householders and their guests about the Kingdom of God.  For this reason, the Lord ate with the Pharisees on several occasions.

On this occasion, the scrambling for the choice seats in the house — those nearest the head of the household and his guest of honor, Jesus — appears unusually intense, and the Lord takes the situation, which no one could deny, as an opportunity to teach about humility, and about himself.  Now, we ought to keep in mind that at this time, humility was not a virtue to be embraced.  In every culture, a person was expected to proclaim his achievements and to demand preferences and privileges for them.  Striving for the highest places at a banquet was customary.  One had to be assertive in order to gain proper deference and rights.  The Pharisees dispute among  themselves for the higher places so that they might be seen as superior to those in lesser places and to reinforce their opinion of their own status.  The Lord begins teaching by offering practical advice.  Following this advice would also allow the owner of the house to rank his guests according to his own estimation of them, perhaps to the consternation of some.  But this would at least show deference to the one giving the banquet, as would be right.  It is charming to see the Lord sometimes speaking on merely earthly matters.  We see that no matter is beneath him, and that he wants to help people in even things of this kind.

His teaching also gives us insight into himself.  He himself is the guest who comes and takes the lowest place, despite his importance.  As St. Paul says, “he emptied himself and took the form of a servant” (Philippians 2, 7) in his Incarnation and living among us.  His Father is the master of the banquet who raises him from the lowest place, from his tomb, to his right hand in heaven, to the acclaim of the countless hosts of angels.

He sits at the lowest place, with us, and we ought to stay where he is, among the other servants.