Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
22nd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Cycle C)
Readings:
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Psalm 68:3-6, 9-10
Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Luke 14:1, 7-14
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), NABRE (New American Bible Revised St. Joseph Edition), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, which is why we read and relive the events of salvation history contained in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Theme of the Readings: The Humble Shall Be Exalted
The truly humble people have no pretensions. They do not
worry about status among their peers; their only concern is keeping their lives
right with God. Christian humility is a virtue rooted in God. It is the
objective of the first of Jesus's beatitudes in Matthew 5:3 when He called His
disciples to possess "poverty of spirit" rather than a spirit of pride: Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. St. Gregory of
Nyssa wrote: "The Word speaks of voluntary humility as 'poverty in spirit'; the
apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he
became poor" (CCC 2546 quoting St. Gregory of Nyssa who quotes St. Paul in 2
Corinthians 8:9).
The First Reading helps us define humility and tells us that true humility gives an honest evaluation of a person's character. A humble person does not have an inflated concept of self and does not put their wants and desires ahead of God, observing obedience to God's commands as more important than self-interest.
The Psalm Reading uses the works of God in the Exodus liberation to remind us that He is the protector of the weak. God is "Father" to Israel because of the bond of the Sinai Covenant and the gift of divine Law through which Israel became His "first-born son" among the other nations of the earth (Ex 4:22). God is also called the "Father" of the Davidic kings (2 Sam 7:12-16). However, the psalmist tells us that God is also the "Father" of the orphaned and widowed under His loving protection (Ps 68:5).
The Second Reading gives us a glimpse of the eternal award that awaits those who possess the humility of poverty of spirit instead of the pride of spirit that leads to destruction. In His Beatitudes teaching, Jesus blessed those who were "poor in spirit" and promised them the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 5:3). Admitting that we are "poor in spirit" and need God is the first step on the journey to salvation (Mt 5:3). The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews contrasts the events of the covenant formation at Sinai with the promise of the new and everlasting covenant made to David and his descendants in 2 Samuel 7:17 (also see 2 Sam 23:5 and 1 Chr 17:11-14) when David established his royal capital upon Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. The Old Covenant had temporal blessings and punishments. However, the inspired writer warns that the New Covenant brought about through the sinless sacrifice of Jesus Christ is eternal. The promises are eternal but so are the punishments. If God punished the disobedience of Israel in the temporal Old Covenant, think how much more severe punishment will be under the New!
In the Gospel reading, Jesus advises us on the rewards of humility, both temporal and eternal. The works of righteousness that God rewards are those in which the genuinely humble have sought no earthly recognition. Christian theologian C. S. Lewis wrote: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less," and Edmund Burke, the English statesman and philosopher, wrote: "True humility, the basis of the Christian system, is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues." Concealed acts of mercy reap eternal rewards far superior to anything a temporal reward can boast.
The First Reading Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 ~ Humility
17 My child, conduct your affairs with humility, and you
will be loved more than a giver of gifts. 18 Humble yourself the more the
greater you are, and you will find favor with God. [...]
20 What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things
beyond your strength search not. [...]
28 The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs, and an attentive
ear is the wise man's joy. 29 Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for
sins.
The inspired writer tells us that humility gives an accurate estimate of self. The humble recognize their shortcomings and open their minds and hearts to learn from God and others who are wise in the ways of God. Performing one's duties with humility avoids what is beyond one's understanding or strength. On the other hand, pride can lead to false greatness, misjudgment, stubbornness, sorrow, and sin. Jesus taught: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted (Lk 18:14). The promise in verse 29 is that one's mercy and kindness toward those in misfortune will atone for one's sins, and those sins will be forgiven by God, using the comparison of fire (sins) quenched by water (charity in almsgiving).
Responsorial Psalm 68:3-6, 9-10 ~ God is the Defender of
the Poor and Humble
The response is: "God, in your goodness you have made a home
for the poor."
3 The just rejoice and exult before God; they are glad and rejoice. 4 Sing
to God, chant praise to his name; whose name is the LORD [YHWH].
Response:
5 The father of orphans and the defender of widows is God
in his holy dwelling. 6 God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth
prisoners to prosperity.
Response:
9 A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your
inheritance; you restored the land when it languished; 10 your flock settled in
it; in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
Response:
Verses 3-4 proclaim a call to praise God and render Him homage. He is the protector of the weak (literally "father of the fatherless") and the protector of widows (verse 5 and CCC 238). The Israelites called God "Father" because He is the Creator of the world. However, God is uniquely "Father" to Israel because of the bond of the Sinai Covenant and the gift of divine Law through which Israel became His "first-born son" among the other nations of the earth (Ex 4:22). Yahweh is also called the "Father" of the Davidic kings (2 Sam 7:14).
Verses 9-10 are veiled references to themes in the book of Exodus and God's promise of protection for the Promised Land if the Israelites were obedient to His laws and upheld His covenant (see Lev 26:3-13; Dt 28:1-14).
The Second Reading Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 ~ The Promise
of the Heavenly Jerusalem
18 You have not approached that which could be touched
and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm 19 and a trumpet blast and a
voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be
further addressed to them. [...] 22 No, you have approached Mount Zion and the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal
gathering, 23 and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the
judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, 24 and Jesus, the
mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently
than that of Abel.
In Hebrews 12:18-21, the inspired writer, believed by many scholars to be St. Paul, describes the events of the manifestation of God at Mt. Sinai when He descended upon the mountain in fire, smoke, and the sound of the shofar (ram's horn trumpet). It was an event both terrifying and dangerous (see Ex 19:12-20:19). Yahweh commanded Moses: You must mark out the limits of the mountain and say, "Take care not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Anyone who touches the mountain will be put to death. No one may lay a hand on him: he must be stoned or shot by arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live." When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they must go up the mountain. The people were terrified by the experience and begged Moses to be their mediator by speaking to God for them.
In this passage, the inspired writer contrasts the events of the covenant formation at Sinai with the promise of the new and everlasting covenant made to David in 2 Samuel 7:11b-17 (also see 1 Chr 17:11-14) when David established his royal capital on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. The covenant at Sinai was corporate because, unlike the other covenants God formed with individuals, the Sinai Covenant was between Yahweh and the children of Israel as a single unified people. See the chart on Yahweh's Eight Covenants. The Sinai Covenant was temporal with earthly blessings and punishments (Lev 26 and Dt 28). However, the inspired writer warns that the New Covenant is eternal. The promises are eternal but so are the punishments. If God punished disobedience in the old, think how much more severe the punishment under the new!
Verse 24 identifies Jesus as the mediator of the New Covenant. It should make the reader recall that Moses was the mediator between God and the children of Israel under the old Sinai Covenant. The inspired writer affirms for a third time in the Letter to the Hebrews that Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (see Hebrews 8:6 and 9:5). However, the inspired writer is not contrasting Moses and Christ, but those people who are receivers of the two covenants and what they receive as a reward for faithfulness and the wrath they receive as punishment.
22 No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the
Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, 23
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect....
Notice the inspired writer's listeners "have approached" the
heavenly Zion—it is the hoped-for city of Hebrews 13:14, not made with human
hands but whose architect is God Himself. They are not told to stay away as
those of the Exodus generation in the Old Covenant. Instead, he calls his Christian
listeners to draw near and approach the heavenly city to worship the Lord on
the Lord's Day in the celebration of the Eucharist. However, they will not
fully enter the heavenly Zion until they pass through death into eternal life.
In Scripture, Mt. Zion is the hill in Jerusalem where David captured the fortress of Zion (2 Samuel 5:6-9) and made it the location of his kingly authority. On that site, David received the promise that God had established an everlasting covenant with him, and his throne would be "secure forever" (2 Sam 7:16; 23:5; 2 Chr 13:5; Ps 89:2-5; Sir 45:25; 47:11/13). Mt. Zion figures prominently in Scripture. In 1 Kings 8:1, the Ark of the Covenant was placed in a tent on Zion, and later moved when the Temple was built on the heights of Mt. Moriah. At that time, the identification of "Zion" was extended to include the site of the Temple Mount and eventually came to refer to the city of Jerusalem as a whole, identifying the name with the place of worship for God's holy people on earth.
Zion also came to be identified with the sacred assembly of God's covenant people (see Ps 78:68; 87:1-2; Is 1:27; 51:3; 59:20; 60:14), and the place where God dwells among His holy people (1 Kng 14:21; Ps 9:11; 48:1-2; 74:2; Is 8:18). Significantly, the often quoted Psalm 110 identifies Zion as the place of the Messiah's enthronement at God's right hand, like the first priest-king Melchizedek ruled from Salem in the earthly Zion: The LORD says to you, my lord: "Take your throne at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool." The scepter of your sovereign might the LORD will extend from Zion. The LORD says: "Rule over your enemies! Yours is princely power from the day of your birth. In holy splendor before the daystar, like the dew I begot you." The LORD has sworn and will not waver: "Like Melchizedek you are a priest forever" (Ps 110:1-4). In the heavenly Zion, the city of the living God, the heir of David, Jesus the King of Kings, reigns (Heb 11:10-13, 16), and every faithful believer's final destination. See the document Zion.
But we should ask, "Why was the New Covenant formation so different?" The Old Sinai Covenant established an earthly dominion associated with temporal blessings. But the New Covenant, while still creating a covenant family living in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, also established an eternal kingdom in which its citizens could pass from the earthly domain to the heavenly to enjoy eternal blessings! The Old Covenant regulated only the lives of the covenant people in their temporal state on earth. It was, as the inspired writer stated in Hebrews 8:5 and 10:1, "a shadow" of the heavenly reality to be inaugurated in the blood of Jesus Christ. Today, believers "made perfect" in the blood of Jesus Christ do not come to an earthly mountain but to the heavenly Mount Zion of the heavenly Jerusalem, and we are not told to "stay away" but to come up and enter into the joyous celebration of God's angelic host.
23a and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven
The word "assembly" in English is the Greek word ekklesia.
The Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament used the Hebrew word kahal,
meaning "the called-out ones," in other words, the Church. In classical Greek, ekklesia
signified the assembly composed only of citizens who had full rights and privileges
to meet and deliberate on the community's needs or to pass legislation for the
good of the community. The Greek word did not suggest a religious gathering but
was adopted by the Jewish translators of the Greek Septuagint to render the
Hebrew word kahal. Kahal Yahweh in Hebrew identified the sacred Assembly
of Yahweh's faithful and the place where the covenant people who God called "out
of the world" offered sacrifice at the Tabernacle/Temple. The Hebrew words kahal
edah signified in later Hebrew, the local assembly of the people of God
where the Sacred Scriptures were studied, which is more commonly rendered in
Greek by the word synagoge, the word from which is derived our English
word "synagogue." In the New Testament, ekklesia reflects the concept of
the kahal of Yahweh, the religious assembly "called out" from other peoples who
offer sacrifice to Yahweh, and the local synagogue where the covenant people
gather to study Scripture. The Mass reflects both aspects: the Liturgy of the
Word in the study of Sacred Scripture and the Liturgy of the Eucharist in the
offering of the sacrifice.
Some examples of the use of ekklesia in the Old Testament Septuagint and the New Testament:
In the Christian era, the Greek word kyriakon, "the Lord's house," was commonly used to refer to a Christian church. The Anglo-Saxon group of words (English = church; Scottish = kirk; German = kirche) comes from this word.
Who then are "the assembly of the firstborn" in verse 23? They are the righteous dead that Jesus led into heaven after His death and descent into the grave (Sheol/Hades); those who had been waiting for His coming from the time of Adam (1 Pt 3:18-20; 4:6). These saints were the "firstfruits" of the harvest of souls who are the Church (ekklesia) glorified. In Romans 8:29, St. Paul called them "the firstborn among many brothers," and he called Jesus "the firstborn of all creation" (Col 1:15) and "the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18).
In ancient cultures like the Israelites, the "firstborn" had exclusive rights of inheritance and blessings. The many disgraced "firstborn" sons in the Old Testament lost these rights of inheritance (i.e., Cain, Esau, Reuben, etc.). They also included the "firstborn" sons of the first Passover who were spared the death of the tenth plague but later were dispossessed of their role in serving God in liturgical worship when they participated in the rebellion in the sin of the Golden Calf (Num 3:11-13). Then too, all of Israel was called God's "firstborn" sons in Exodus 4:22-23, but they, like the disgraced "firstborn" Esau, refused their inheritance when they rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. The saints are the "cloud of witnesses," the "firstborn" of that redeemed assembly in Heaven, who received all those eternal promises in abundance. The faithful Christians who pass from death to eternal life are those "enrolled" as citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem because their names are enrolled in the Book of Life (see Phil 4:3; Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:11-12).
An important question for us is, can one's name be erased from the Book of Life if one has embraced sin to the point of rejecting salvation? The answer is "Yes," which is another nail in the coffin of the false doctrine of "eternal security." Someone has to be "saved" to have one's name written in the Book of Life. However, if one's name is "erased," that person is no longer "saved" to inherit eternal life (see Ex 32:32; Ps 68:27-28 and Rev 3:5).
In Hebrews 12:24, the inspired writer declared for the third time that Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (see Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24) and then announced that Jesus's blood has the power to speak to humanity: 24 and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently (can also be translated "insistently") than that of Abel. The "sprinkled blood" recalls the Blood Ritual necessary to expiate sins at God's holy sacrificial altar in the Jerusalem Temple. Jesus's blood continually offered for the sins of humanity before the heavenly altar atones for humankind's sins in an ongoing Blood Ritual.
But how does Jesus's blood speak more powerfully than Abel's blood? Read Genesis 4:10; Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51; 23:24; John 6:53-56; Hebrews 9:18-28; 10:19-20; and 1 Peter 1:2. Hebrews 12:24 only makes sense if it is a reference to Jesus's precious Blood in the sacrifice of the Most Holy Eucharist. Abel's blood cried out for justice in Genesis 4:10. Jesus spoke of Abel's blood crying out for justice in Matthew 23:35 and Luke 11:51, along with the cries for justice from the blood of the other prophets of God that the Old Covenant people had murdered down through the centuries. Jesus promised that His generation of Old Covenant people would have to answer for all the suffering endured by the holy ones of God. But Jesus's blood does not cry out in vengeance. Instead, His blood shouts out in mercy and forgiveness of sins as it purifies and sanctifies the believer and leads all who receive Him in the Eucharist to eternal life. In the "Bread of Life Discourse" in the Gospel of John, Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (Jn 6:53-56; also see Heb 10:19-22). Jesus's eloquent cry from the Cross of suffering was "Father, forgive them" (Lk 23:24).
At the ratification ceremony of the Covenant at Sinai, there was the ritual sacrifice of a bull as a communal offering for the people's sins. Then, Moses sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the book that recorded the Law, on the altar representing God, and on the people who symbolized the ratification of one Covenant family, united in the blood of the covenant (see Heb 9:18-22 and Ex 24:5-8). The Sinai Covenant was also maintained in the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice continually in the twice-daily Tamid lamb sacrifice on the sacrificial altar in the courtyard and at Yom Kippur (Feast of Atonement) on the Incense altar and the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 24:6; Lev 1:5; 3:2, 13; 16:14-19; etc.). However, in the New Covenant, we are united as one covenant family in the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood continues to maintain the New Covenant and our commitment to live in obedience to our covenant bond in Christ. In his first letter to the universal Church, St. Peter greeted the faithful with these words: to the chosen sojourners of the dispersion.... in the foreknowledge of God, the Father through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ: may grace and peace be yours in abundance (1 Pt 1:2).
Jesus spoke of offering the first Eucharistic cup of His Blood at the Last Supper in Luke 22:20 when He said: This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you. He continues to offer us His Blood from the heavenly Sanctuary, as the inspired writer of Hebrews assured the faithful: Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer (Heb 8:3). And also: Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh (Heb 10:19-20). This is the same blood He offers to us in the Eucharist sacrifice. As the inspired writer told his audience in Hebrews 9:14, it is more powerful than the blood sacrifice of the Old Covenant: how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. Jesus's blood cleanses and nourishes New Covenant believers at every Eucharistic celebration.
Sometime before AD 202, St. Clement of Alexandria wrote eloquently of the nourishment believers receive from the Blood of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist: "When the loving and benevolent Father had rained down the Word, that Word then became the spiritual nourishment of those who have good sense. O mystic wonder! The Father of all is indeed one, one also is the universal Word, and the Holy Spirit is one and the same everywhere; and one only is the Virgin Mother. I love to call her the Church. This Mother alone was without milk, because she alone did not become a wife. She is at once both Virgin and Mother: as a Virgin, undefiled; as a Mother, full of love. Calling her children about her, she nourishes them with holy milk, that is, with the Infant Word ... The Word is everything to a child: both Father and Mother, both Instructor and Nurse. 'Eat My Flesh,' He says, 'and drink My Blood.' The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutriments. He delivers over His Flesh and pours out His Blood; and nothing is lacking for the growth of His children. O incredible mystery!" (Clement, Paidagogos, 1.6.41.3).
The Gospel of Luke 14:1, 7-14 ~ The Reward of Humility
1 On a Sabbath, Jesus went to dine at the home of one of
the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. [...] 7
He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing
the places of honor at the table. 8 "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, 9 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. 10 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. 11 For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." 12 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. 13 Rather, when you
hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 14 blessed
indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid
at the resurrection of the righteous."
1 On the Sabbath, he went to dine at the home of one of
the leading Pharisees...
Friends and influential guests were often invited to a
Sabbath meal after the Synagogue service or the Temple liturgical worship
service (see Jn 12:1). The meal usually took place at noon, which was the 6th-hour
Jewish time and the 12th-hour Roman time (Josephus, Life, 54
[279]). The Sabbath rest commandment prohibited work on the seventh day Sabbath
(Ex 20:8-11; 23:12; 31:12-17; 34:21; 35:1-3;
Lev 19:3; Dt 5:12-15). Therefore,
the meal would have been prepared the day before, on Friday, which was called
"Preparation Day" for the Sabbath (Jn 19:31; also see Mishnah: Shabbat,
4:1-2 for the regulations for serving the food).
The banquet is the third with the Pharisees and scribes recorded by St. Luke:
and the people there were observing him carefully.
Jesus had caused controversy several times by healing on the
Sabbath, so the people were watching Him closely to see if He would perform a healing
miracle again or break some other Sabbath prohibition according to the
understanding of the Pharisees. The Sinai Covenant never forbade healing on the
Sabbath, but the Pharisees had their strict interpretation of the Law.
Luke 14:8-11 ~ The Parable of the Wedding Feast
8 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, 9 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. 10 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. 11 For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself
will be exalted."
Guests at banquets in this period in history adopted the
Greek customs of a symposium, a formal meal where guests reclined on couches placed
around a table. The placement of the guests was according to their rank or
social status. Jesus noticed that some were deciding their status within the
company by choosing the best seats at the banquet table. You may recall Jesus
has already condemned the Pharisees for their arrogant practice of expecting
the best places to sit in the Synagogues (Lk 11:43).
Luke identifies Jesus's comments as a "parable" in verse 8, so we immediately know a spiritual message is associated with this episode. If St. Luke hadn't designated this as a parable, it could have been interpreted as only advice for guests on proper conduct and humility at a dinner party. The other hint is that Jesus uses a wedding as the occasion in His parable and not an ordinary banquet. His teaching alludes to the wedding banquet of the just in the Kingdom of God. The wedding imagery recalls the prophecy of Israel's promise of restoration to God's fellowship in Isaiah 62:4-5.
Jesus's advice to the self-righteous Pharisees who are the banquet guests is that they shouldn't be so arrogant as to choose the highest status seats at the table because they might be embarrassed if the host asked them to select another place. However, there is also a symbolic teaching point concerning seating or position for those Jesus invited to His Wedding Supper of the Righteous. There is (1) an immediate future and (2) an eschatological future teaching that can be applied to this parable. See Rev 19:4-9 and Jesus's teaching in Luke 9:48, 12:35-37
# 1. The immediate future context is the Eucharist: The wedding banquet of Christ and His Bride, the Church, which Jesus will inaugurate at the Last Supper. Those invited (the baptized in a state of grace) should humbly and reverently find their place at the "table" of Christ's altar, not after discerning their "right" and "status" to be there, but by humbly confessing their sins and reverently submitting their lives to God. The Lord rewards the humble who are grateful to be invited to the banquet of the Eucharist but not the arrogant who assume that they deserve a place of honor at the Lord's Table.
| Symbolic Imagery in the Parable of the Wedding Banquet | |
| The wedding banquet | The Eucharistic banquet |
| The host | Jesus Christ |
| The guests seeking the places of highest honor | The self-seeking who will be least in Christ's Kingdom |
| The guest who seeks the lowest seat | The humble who the host will exalt |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2013 | |
#2. The eschatological sense of this parable is the Wedding Supper of the Lamb at the end of time as we know it. At that gathering, attended by all the saints, the places of honor will belong to the most humble servants of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
Luke 14:12-14 ~ Jesus's advice to the banquet guests
12 Then he said to the host who invited him, "When you
hold a lunch or 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. 13 Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the
crippled, the lame, the blind; 14 blessed indeed will you be because of their
inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the
righteous."
In the second part of His teaching, Jesus made a point for
His host, a leader among the Pharisees. It is another teaching on storing up
treasure in Heaven. When one is rewarded by others for good deeds, either in
repaying the kindness or in the esteem of their friends and neighbors, that is their
just reward. God does not intend to reward those who have already received earthly
recognition for their efforts. The works of righteousness that God rewards are
those in which the humble have sought no worldly compensation. Hidden acts of
mercy reap eternal blessings far superior to anything that a temporal reward
can boast. If His Pharisee host, who considered himself righteous, wanted to be
judged as worthy by God and to receive God's blessings, he would invite the
poor and dispossessed who cannot repay him.
Catechism References:
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 (CCC 2546, 2559)
Psalm 68:6 (CCC 238*); 68:10 (CCC 584)
Hebrews 12:22-23 (CCC 2188); 12:23 (CCC 1021*)
The Incarnation as a mystery of humility (CCC 525*, 526*)
The disorder of concupiscence (CCC 2535-2537, 2538*, 2539-2540)
Prayer calls for humility and poverty of spirit (CCC 2546*, 2559*, 2631*, 2713*)
Our participation in the heavenly liturgy (CCC 1090, 1137*, 1138*, 1139)
Sunday lets us share in the festal assembly of Heaven (CCC 2188*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.