Saturday in the 30th Week of Ordinary Time, October 30, 2021

Luke 14:1, 7-11

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.”

Our model par excellence of humility is the Lord Jesus Christ, for, as St. Paul says, he “who was in the form of God, did not think it a prize to be grasped to be equal to God, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, born in the likeness of men, and was found in the likeness of a man.  He humbled himself, being born unto death, the death of the cross” (Philippians 2, 6-8).  The verb I have translated from the Greek as “emptied” can also mean “to deprive of content”.  To begin to understand the Lord’s humility, which is all we can humanly do, we have to think in terms of similes and metaphors.  In today’s Gospel reading, the Lord himself presents what he has done, taking “the lowest place”.  Verse 10 in this reading, which speaks of this, might be translated, literally, “But when you are called, traveling, recline at the last place.” The verb I have translated as “traveling” has this customary meaning, rather than “go”.  The adjective I have translated here as “last” is the Greek eschaton, which does not mean “lowest”, as in the lectionary translation, but “last”, “final”, “at the last”.  The Lord uses this word to describe himself in Revelation 22, 13: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Applying this verse to the Lord, it means that he “emptied himself” in order to “travel” the great distance between heaven and earth, where he reclined first in the womb of the Virgin Mother, then in a dirty manger, on the “bed” of the Cross, as the Fathers called it, and in a stranger’s tomb, taking the furthest place from heaven possible in the human world.

The Lord shows how we might imitate him in his humility through the parable in this reading.  “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor.”  The seating at a banquet or feast was determined by the host.  The guest of honor, or the guest whom the host considered of highest importance would be given a place of marked significance — at the head of the table, for instance.  The other guests would be seated by the host in the order of importance in which he viewed them.  (The fact that the Lord and his Mother were with the servants at the Wedding at Cana tells us that they were seated at places furthest from the head).  The order was determined entirely by the host.  Thus, a guest who chose for himself the place of honor showed himself rude and a fool.  “A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him.”  This is the more likely the greater the number of guests who have been invited.  In addition, the seating of a guest in the place of honor by the host was itself a conspicuous honor.  In seating himself, the foolish guest would be passing this up.  But because a fool seldom realizes that he is a fool, the Lord urges that no one consider himself the guest of honor.  Otherwise, “you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.”  A better translation would be: “You will be led in shame to the last place.”  

Rather, the Lord says, “traveling, recline at the last place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ ”  We note that the Lord did not say to take one of the last places, but the very last place.  The host, recognizing the true value of the guest in the last place at the table, seats him higher up, perhaps displacing another person to do this.  The Almighty Father who sees his Son in the last place, says to him, My Son, come up higher, and so from his tomb he raises him to glory.  “Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.”  Those at the table will praise the one who is raised up, seeing the favor bestowed upon him by their host.  The guest thus receives greater honor than if he had been seated by the host there right at the start.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  We should note here that the one who “exalts himself” will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself “will be exalted” by another, by the host.  When we exalt ourselves we show our own foolish pride.  When someone of actual importance exalts us, it is a different matter.  When the Lord exalts us after we have taken the last place with him on earth, we shall be glorified in the eyes of the angels.

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