“Taste and see that the Lord is good”
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to the Apostle and Evangelist Saint Luke (14:16-24)
Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' But they all with one accord began to make excuses.
The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.' Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'
So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.'
Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 'For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.' "
Reflection
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace and good!
In this XXVIII Sunday after Pentecost, today’s Divine Liturgy proposes to us the Gospel passage, taken from the Holy Gospel of St Luke, concerning the parable of the Great Supper or, as St Matthew calls it, the parable of the wedding banquet (Mt 22: 2-14).
Today’s Gospel continues reflection on themes related to the table and the invitation. Jesus tells the parable of the banquet. Many people had been invited, but most did not go. The master of the feast was outraged at the absence of the guests and sent for the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. And despite this there was still room. Then he ordered to invite everyone, until the house was full. This parable was a light for the communities of Luke’s time.
In the communities of Luke’s time there were Christians, coming from Judaism, and Christians from the Gentiles, called pagans. Despite the differences in race, class and gender, they lived thoroughly the ideal of sharing and communion (Acts 2:42; 4:32; 5:12). But there were many difficulties because some norms of formal purity prevented the Jews from eating with the pagans. And even after entering the Christian community, some of them kept this custom of not sitting down with a pagan. Therefore, Peter came into conflict with the community of Jerusalem for having entered the house of Cornelius, a pagan, and for having eaten with him (Acts 11:3). Faced with this problem of the communities, Luke preserved a series of words of Jesus concerning the banquet (Lk 14:1-24). The parable that we meditate here is a portrait of what was happening in the communities.
The context of this parable revolves around the meal, the supper of Jesus with certain Pharisees.
Jesus was invited to lunch by one of the main Pharisees, it is an opportunity to talk about humility, not to choose the first places at the wedding lunch and then he says to invite people who cannot reciprocate: poor, crippled and blind cripples, the return will be made to the resurrection of the dead and so he will be blessed says Jesus.
One of the guests, probably a Pharisee, hearing these things, about the supper, says blessed who will eat bread in the kingdom of God to come, therefore after the resurrection (v.14).
The idea of blessing at the resurrection of the righteous brings one of the invited to the affirmation: "Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God" (v.15).
The man probably believed like most of his countrymen, that only the Jews would be invited to the banquet in heaven, and certainly he thought he was part of this host.
But to participate in this banquet we must respond positively to the invitation, Jesus will say.
Jesus thus tells a parable in response to this guest and says that a man prepared a great feast and invited many and sent his servant to tell the guests that dinner was ready.
Dear brothers and sisters, how beautiful and how joyful we feel to be able to attend a wedding banquet. However, for several years now, this theme, in Theology, has been erroneously combined with the Eucharist. This combination is part of the Protestant world.
Protestants recognize only two sacraments, namely those instituted by Jesus in the Holy Scriptures: Baptism and the Eucharist. All the others are rituals established by churchmen. However, in the Eucharist they reject the concept of transubstantiation: Christ is not present in bread and wine, but his presence is symbolic, the rite is only a way to remember the Last Supper and His sacrifice. And here we immediately see the first gaffe: because if it is only a memorial then it is no longer a sacrament, a mystery, where the true source is missing, the true architect of our salvation: Jesus Christ Our God, Lord and Savior. And so, if the Eucharist is devoid of any principle of Salvation, what good is it to take it? Its value is the same as an expired medicine!!!!
On the contrary, the Holy Church, which is Catholic and Orthodox, this way of thinking is unacceptable. Saint Ignatius of Antioch defines the Eucharist as a "medicine of immortality". Because we believe that that piece of bread and that wine are not there on the altar to remember a historical event but, thanks to the intervention of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves in the presence of the Most Holy Body and the Most Precious Blood of Christ: the Eucharist. Christ’s most precious gift to the Church and to human society. And it is precisely by communicating with the Body and Blood of Christ, our Lord and our God, for the remission of our sins and for eternal life, that we accept personally and freely, and thanks to this powerful and immense Sacrament, our union with the Body of Christ is realized.
However, this union is not always realized:
Referring to this heavenly banquet, Jesus tells a parable of a man who prepared a great supper and invited many, and at supper time he sent a servant to tell the guests that the supper was ready.
It was customary among the Jews to give a double invitation, the first invitation served to the guests to inform them about the day and the second invitation was the day of the supper when everything was ready, so the landlord sent the servant to call the guests (Cfr. Esther 5:8; 6:14).
We see the apologies of the guests in declining the invitation and this indicated a lack of courtesy, so it was offensive behavior, was a strong negative social message challenging the authority and honor of those who hosted and precisely because of ingratitude has created the saying: "do not do good if you cannot bear ingratitude". Because if we necessarily expected gratitude no one would do good anymore.
But we see that they are excuses, meaningless to prove that these guests had never had the desire and interest to participate.
1) The first excuse: the man had bought the field and had to go and see it.
It would seem a lie, because how do you buy a field without, first, seeing it? Even if he had bought it, the camp, it did not run away, he could see it even after, this was an excuse that does not stand.
2) The second excuse: the man who bought five pairs of oxen and wanted to go and try them.
The purchase of five pairs of oxen indicates that he was rich and that he had made a great purchase.
Also, in this case it is the same thing as the first case, he could try them again, this was also an excuse because the guest did not want to attend the banquet.
3) The third excuse: the man who took wife and could not go.
According to the law, the man who was to marry, or just married, was not to go to war for a year as for important business, such as buying a house, or a vineyard (Deuteronomy 20:5-7; 24:5), but not that he was exempt from attending a banquet, so the circumstance is different, this is still an excuse because he did not want to go to the banquet.
All these excuses were weak, the invitation was rejected by all the guests.
But who are these people? To whom does Jesus refer?
Dear brothers, we can well see that through this parable, Jesus calls the people of Israel to salvation, like a true lifeboat.
A people who denies it, who find excuses not to accept it. And from their hardness and blindness, He emanates His condemnation stating: "None of those who were invited will taste my supper" and directs his, at this point, His unconditional love on those who have a pure and open heart willing to welcome Him.
Today, these people who have not accepted the Lord’s invitation are all those who have strayed from his will, remaining in their evil convictions, moving away from the true way and true faith (The Church in Rome can be a largely sufficient example).
This invitation to salvation remains open. It is an invitation that is addressed to each of us continuously and only in our inner silence we truly know if we have responded worthily to the call or have preferred to decline the invitation because of the pleasures of the world.
On those who have not yet decided whether to accept or reject the invitation because of insecurity, I fervently pray to the Holy Spirit Paraclete, the Giver of Life, so that he may descend upon them and they, enlightened by His light, may choose wisely.
The Gospel passage ends with the return of the servant to his master and reported to him what had happened, then the landlord became angry and told the servant to go to the squares and streets of the city and lead: poor, crippled, blind and lame, same categories that Jesus had previously said to invite (14:13).
The servant did as the master had commanded and returns saying that there is still room, so the master asks the servant to go again in the streets and along the hedges and force the other guests to enter the house until the house was full.
Dear brothers, look at how insistently the Lord calls us so that, through him, we may be saved. Beloved brothers, when the Lord calls us, we do not remain prey to our fears but, Indeed, let us throw ourselves and entrust ourselves totally to his will as Our Most Holy Mother did during the day when she received from the Archangel Gabriel the Announcement to become the Mother of God.
May the Most Holy and Ever Virgin Mary guide you always and at every moment of your life and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, as true Disciples of her Son, and through the fervent prayers of Saint Sinesio Martyr of Rome (who was ordained Reader in the time of Blessed Pope Sixtus II, and having converted many to Christ, he was accused by the Emperor Aurelian, and struck by the sword he received the crown of martyrdom) you can actually give concrete meaning to your life in the Suffering with Christ, in Christ and for Christ!
"Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts!"
(Hebrews 4:7; Psalms 95:7-8)
Michele Alberto Del Duca, Archdeacon.
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