At the banquet of love

Tuesday, October 15, 2013
28TH Week in Ordinary Time First Reading: Rom 1:16-25 GOSPEL:
Luke 11:37-41
As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He entered and reclined at table. Seeing this, the Pharisee was surprised that he had not first performed the ablution prescribed before eating. The Lord said to him: “You Pharisees! You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but within you are filled with rapaciousness. Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too? But if you give what you have as alms, all will be wiped clean for you.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A group of friends found themselves one day in a town of Negros Oriental which happened to be celebrating its annual fiesta.   Feeling hungry they tried to find a way to get free lunch, believing that in most provinces of the Philippines when fiesta time is running every house is one’s dining. Presupposing they were distant relatives, a member of the family ushered them to the dining table. Trouble came when the elderly host approached them and asked how each was related to him. One by one they slipped out of the house by the kitchen door. Hilarious yet embarrassing!
Jesus’ experience in the house of a Pharisee was even more embarrassing. He was a legitimate guest, yet his host subjected him to a more cruel scrutiny. He even made a big fuss of Jesus’ failure to do the customary washing of hands before eating. But he got a dose of his own medicine when Jesus exposed his hypocrisy. Jesus said: “You Pharisees! You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but within you are filled with rapaciousness.”
The elderly host who scrutinized my friend and her group did not intend to embarrass them. Not so with the Pharisee. There was malice in the way he watched Jesus closely from the moment he entered his house.
How unfortunate that an occasion of love and hospitality such as a meal was used to trap innocent guests like Jesus. If one is uncharitable during occasions so associated with charity like a meal, how can we expect him to be charitable in other occasions?
“At fiesta time all jokes are valid”, say the Italians. For sure Italians do not go so far as crack offensive jokes, for the essence of a meal is charity in the line of the Filipino maxim, “When fiesta time is running, every house is one’s dining.” This nature of a meal is fully realized in our Eucharistic banquets. Come to the banquet of the Lord and you will never be embarrassed, for the host is Jesus himself who considers everyone not just relatives but brothers and sisters under the one Father of us all, the Creator of the world. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website:www.frdan.org.
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