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| Jesus Christ Invites Us to the Banquet of Eternal life |
We’re also praying that God will keep safe those in the pathway of Hurricane Dorian.
The book of Sirach alerts us to be humble, dependent upon an all-good Creator. We are what we are by the grace of God. The good we do in life is the only thing that we will take with us to God in death.
The letter to the Hebrews contrasts two assemblies, one at Mount Sinai where God made a covenant with the Hebrews; and the other in the heavenly Jerusalem where countless creatures celebrate the new covenant or relationship God made with us through the bloody death and glorious resurrection of His son Jesus. Yes, God transformed us into his sons and daughters, coheirs to the kingdom of God. We are challenged to live a life worthy of that status.
In the Gospel, after watching how the so-called rich and famous proudly took places of honor at the table, Jesus told a parable, comparing the kingdom of God to a celestial banquet. All are welcome. But who will be seated at the table ? The humble, the people we may least expect to see. The 20th century Catholic novelist Flannery O'Connor captures this parable powerfully in her short story "Revelation."
Jesus teaches us, “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be…For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
The word “humility” derives from the Latin word humus, ground or soil, understood simply as down-to-earth, knowing who we are. Mary, Mother of God, showed humility in her song titled the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord … because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Yes, Mary rejoiced in the gifts God bestowed upon her, and so too should we.
Pride is the opposite. Pride thinks “self”-sufficient. The book of Genesis gives us insight. God made us in His image and likeness. But we wanted to be number one. We overstepped our limits. The legendary Adam and Eve broke all their relationships, hid from Gdiscipleship, beatitudesod, blamed each other, and the land barely produced sustenance.
Hence, we are born into a broken world. That is the Catholic understanding of original sin, a phrase St. Augustine coined. The biblical characters mirror us trying to play God. Humility recognizes that we are absolutely dependent upon an all-good God. Luckily, God had the final word, and became one of us in Jesus of Nazareth.
There is no human solution to the brokenness in our world. There is a power beyond us – God -- that can heal this brokenness, and we can participate in that healing by doing good for others. This awesome, all-good, and transcendent power became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and is alive in our midst by the power of the Spirit. This same God invites us to live a life of discipleship with Jesus, to reflect the beatitudes in our daily lives and to be generous with what we have so that one day we, gloriously alive with Jesus Christ can sit at the banquet of eternal life.
Amen.
