22nd Sunday in ordinary time. Readings: Sirach 3:17–18, 20, 28–29; Psalm 68:4–7,10–11; Hebrews 12:18–19, 22–24; Luke 14:1, 7–14
The Word of God of today’s liturgy is really enriching and challenging. Enriching because it gives us new insights and directions for life, challenging because it is quite difficult to practice in our daily life. In other words, God should be the measuring rod of our life.
The first reading from the Book of Sirach, Ch. 3 and the Gospel reading from Luke ,Ch. 14 point to us three things:
1. What kind of person you are and this will determine your life, your relationships with others.
2. Your life with others will determine the way you share your meals with others.
3. The above two will determine your life in God
1. The first one is your relationships will determine what kind of person you are.
The book of Sirach is full of human experiences and wisdom. It speaks about your life and my life. The book says be a gentleman and a humble man. Sirach 3:17–18 (Mt 20:26–28; Phil 2:3–8) “My child, perform your tasks with humility; then you will be loved by those whom God accepts. The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself; so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord.”
God measures us by our gentleness and meekness. A person with humility will find God’s blessings and God will be with him/her.
We also see in the book of Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
We see a number of references in the New Testament where Jesus emphasises the importance of being humble and kind.
Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
Matthew 10:16 “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent/humble as doves.”
Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Jesus makes a special reference to children as the ones who are more humble than anyone else in the world. Matthew 18:4 “Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Mary in her magnificat speaks about God’s providential care for those who are lowly and meek. Luke 1:48 “for he [God] has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Again in Luke 1:52 “He [God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.”
Even St James speaks about God’s blessing upon those who are humble; 4:5–6 But he [God] gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
2. The second aspect is your life with others, which has to do with sharing your meals or food with others. “Hungry stomach does not listen” people say. The very first book of the Bible, Genesis 2:15–16 speaks “and the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden.” In fact, God gave the freedom to eat whatever the human person wanted. Further we see how Abraham was blessed by God for showing his incredible hospitality and sharing a meal with the unknown three strangers who visited him on a very tiring day.
Genesis 18:2 “He [Abraham] looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground.” Sharing a meal with others who are strangers would make God to duly reward them by satisfying their hearts desires.
In the New Testament, it is Jesus who is the centre of hospitality and kindness. Jesus often appears to be as a party man. He enjoyed eating with his people, with his disciples, and with his friends. He took that opportunity to teach them something very significant. He taught them important lessons and lessons of life at the table. This determined his relationship with them.
Often the opposition front of Jesus, which included Pharisees, saw in him something basically wrong with the way he is going about in his work. Matthew 9:11 speaks “When the Pharisees saw this [eating], they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus knew the significance of eating a meal with the strangers. When the disciples were sent on a missionary work he tells them, “Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you” [Luke 10:8].
Jesus also gives the futurity of the Kingdom of God and what it would be like. He says “Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God” [Luke 13:29].
Jesus also dined often in the house of Martha and Mary. He was like their close family friend. When Lazarus died Jesus felt for these two of his sisters. He raises their brother from death. Jesus always had a kind heart for those who shared meals with him.
Finally Jesus completed his preaching ministry very beautifully by sharing of the Passover Meal with his close-knit disciples. “So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover meal” [Matthew 26:18–19]. Thus through this establishment of Eucharist he gave himself, his Body as our food and his Blood as our drink. Hence, he could continue to sustain us throughout our earthly life. This is how Jesus continues to show his unity among us.
3. Thirdly, our life in God
Therefore to live in a community we too need to have good relationships and meals. We also need to be humble and meek, kind and generous in our dealings. We shouldn’t put our standards, standards of this world in the forefront. This will deny the place not only for others but also for us. St. Augustine put it so beautifully how we should deal among ourselves even when the issues of confrontation and arguments come up. He said, "In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis (or, dubiis) libertas, in utrisque (omnibus) caritas," which means “in essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity."
There is a saying in Russian, “Ребёнок родится голодный и головы.” It means “a child is born hungry and naked.” Very often we eat the stuff that we don’t need. We put on ourselves things that we don’t need to breath God. They are seldom either defile us or malnourish us.
We pray that in everyway let us put God’s standard as the measuring rod. Thus we will be able to see every person and every action that we do through the eyes of God.
- Olvin Veigas, SJ
01.09.2019
1 comment:
Words have power and it makes miracles happen. And you empower those words by using them in a proper way. The three powerful points left us in reflections. It helps me to unleash the optimist in me. These three points are three golden rule for every one to practice. Thanks to the editor for sharing his ideas.
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