Reserved guest

iStock/BrianAJackson

“God in your goodness, you have made a home for the poor” (Ps 68:10).

I am going to make a great presumption that everyone loves a good party. If I’m right about that, then you should know that Jesus does, too.

I am confident in that statement as the Gospel of John shares that Jesus, with his mother Mary, attended a wedding feast in Cana (cf: John 2), but he also uses images of wedding events to reinforce the message of joyful expectation.

In this Sunday’s Gospel account from Luke, we are told that Jesus is having a meal at the house of a “leading Pharisee.” As he is there with them, Jesus takes advantage of the opportunity to speak to those around him, even as he watches these guests clamor over one another for the best seat in the house. He shares a parable of a wedding banquet that is taking place, where the guests who have been invited to share in the celebration are also finding for themselves the best seats in the house. Through the parable, he tells those listening that humility is important when attending an event as a guest.

If you’ve ever received an invitation to attend an event, hopefully you have felt a sense of honor through it for being remembered, and not become pompous or inflated as if you deserved the invitation. And unless the invitation explicitly tells you that you are a guest of honor or that a special seat has been reserved for you, most times you attend the event expecting that the host will show you where you are to be seated, lest you seat yourself in a place not intended for you and be embarrassed when moved to a lesser location.

The parable can ultimately be likened to an invitation to attend the eternal wedding banquet where the kingdom of God will truly be made manifest. Where God and his beloved, those who choose to follow him, will finally be together forever in complete union.

Jesus is preparing the Party of all Parties, and he’s going to make sure that the celebration is out of this world. As God’s children, we have been invited to attend and be a part of this banquet of eternal life. If you plan to attend, be not like those mentioned in the parable who think that an invitation gives license to do as you wish, as if it is owed you, lest you are removed and placed in the “lowest place.” Rather, attend and let Jesus, the host of the heavenly banquet, lead you to the seat he has saved for you.

Accept his invitation with the utmost humility, this beautiful virtue that helps serve to remind us that all things are a blessing from God, not owed to us but gifted to us out of that divine love, the covenant he made with us so long ago. Pray that we may take part in “the resurrection of the righteous,” to attend the eternal party in heaven.

Father Ly is pastor of Presentation in Maplewood.

Sunday, Aug. 28
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time