November 6, 2018
Tuesday
31st Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Phil 2:5–11
Gospel: Luke 14:15-24
One of those at the table said to Jesus, “Happy are those who eat at the banquet in the kingdom of God!”Jesus replied, “A man once gave a feast and invited many guests. When it was time for the feast he sent his servant to tell those he had invited to come, for everything was ready. But all alike began to make excuses. The first said: ‘Please excuse me. I must go and see the piece of land I have just bought.’ Another said: ‘I am sorry, but I am on my way to try out the five yoke of oxen I have just bought.’ Still another said, ‘How can I come when I have just married?’“The servant returned alone and reported this to his master. Upon hearing the account, the master of the house flew into a rage and ordered his servant: ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’“The servant reported after a while: ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out, but there is still room.’ The master said: ‘Go out to the highways and country lanes and force people to come in, to make sure my house is full. I tell you, none of those invited will have a morsel of my feast.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
When one struggles with budgetary constraints during the planningstage of a banquet, guests are carefully chosen and invited on the basis of priority. That is why it is so depressing to receive regrets for a response from such invited guests. This is exactly what the host in today’s Gospel reading experienced. To ventilate his disgust he just invited any person he could find. He summoned the poor, the lame, the blind and the crippled. These humble people consoled the host with their presence.
Jesus used this human experience to dramatize God’s disappointmentover the chosen people’s cold response to His invitation. God offered his exclusive friendship but the Chosen people were not interested. Jesus declared in another Gospel passage that prostitutes and tax collectors stood to benefit from the invitation, which the chosen people ignored.
We too are invited. We can register our response in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Many of us, however, ignore this sacrament, citing reasons such as lack of time or lack of trust in the priest hearing the confession. This echoes the depressing answers of invited guests in today’s Gospel parable. Prostitutes and other public sinners will be marching ahead of us in heaven while we gnash and grind our teeth for losing what is rightfully ours as baptized heirs of the kingdom of God. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M . Email: [email protected].
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