Tuesday of the thirty-first week in Ordinary Time carries the optional memorial of Saint Martin de Porres, a Dominican religious in Lima, and it sets a table already laid before us. Our difficulty is the invitation we leave unanswered because every excuse sounds reasonable. The readings lead us from Paul, the apostle, writing to the church of Philippi, through the psalm of the poor, to a feast whose house must be filled.
When someone sitting at table with him had heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God." So he said to him: "A certain man prepared a great feast, and he invited many. And he sent his servant, at the hour of the feast, to tell the invited to come; for now everything was ready. And at once they all began to make excuses. The first said to him: 'I bought a farm, and I need to go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.' And another said: 'I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. I ask you to excuse me.' And another said, 'I have taken a wife, and therefore I am not able to go.' And returning, the servant reported these things to his lord. Then the father of the family, becoming angry, said to his servant: 'Go out quickly into the streets and neighborhoods of the city. And lead here the poor, and the disabled, and the blind, and the lame.' And the servant said: 'It has been done, just as you ordered, lord, and there is still room.' And the lord said to the servant: 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel them to enter, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, that none of those men who were invited will taste of my feast.'" (Lk 14:15-24)
The first reading comes from Paul, the apostle, and it speaks of a Christ who did not cling to what was his. Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God something to be seized. Instead, "he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil 2:7), and because of this God exalted him. The glory of God is therefore not opposed to the descent, but shown in it. That is the understanding Paul asks of the church of Philippi.
The psalm of David, king of Israel, already names the guests: "The poor will eat and be satisfied" (Ps 21:27). And the promise does not stop at the borders of one people, for all the ends of the earth will remember and be converted, and all the families of the Gentiles will adore in the sight of the Lord. So the feast belongs first to the poor and then to the nations, because the kingdom belongs to the Lord.
At table with Jesus, one guest exclaims, "Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God" (Lk 14:15). He has understood that a meal can speak of the kingdom, and Jesus answers with a story about a man who prepared a great feast and invited many. At the hour of the feast he sent his servant to tell the invited to come, for everything was ready. Nothing is lacking on the side of the host, and the hour is now, not tomorrow.
But the invited all begin to make excuses at once. One has bought a farm, another five yoke of oxen, a third has taken a wife, and the first two end with the same courteous request: "I ask you to excuse me" (Lk 14:18). None of these things is evil. Yet they become walls when they take the place of the call: no one refuses the master, and no one chooses him. The master grows angry, and his anger is the impatience of a host before indifference, with no bitterness in it.
Then the master does what God does: he widens the circle. The servant is sent into the streets of the city to lead in the poor, the disabled, the blind and the lame, who have nothing to give back. When the servant reports that "there is still room" (Lk 14:22), the master sends him out to the highways and hedges, beyond the city, toward the nations. To compel them to enter is not a threat: it is the burning desire of a host who wants his house filled.
And yet the parable warns those who already sit near the table. The first invited do not taste the feast, because they treated the invitation as a right that could wait. Christ Jesus had the greatest claim of all, and he did not seize it. That is why baptism, service and long fidelity cannot become a title to a place: they are the beginning of a path that asks for a new yes every day, with total trust in the God who calls.
In the spirituality of Bethlehem, the house of bread is a table set for those who have no claim on it. The One who emptied himself and took the form of a servant did not wait to be deserved: he became small so that the small could draw near, and he gave himself where nothing could be returned. The name of that town reads as an invitation, and the poor who come in from the streets are its first guests.
Let us therefore examine the reasons that keep us from the table, for they are rarely wicked. The farm, the oxen and the new household of the parable have their counterparts in our family, our work and our plans. These good things are given to us. But they were never meant to stand between us and the master who calls, who has laid the table for today.
Thus we may rejoice that God seats first those whom the world sets aside, and we may carry his invitation to them with patience and kindness, never with pressure. Then the table laid before us will not stay empty, and the house the master wants filled will find room for us and for everyone we meet.
Scripture text: Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV), public domain.
Prayer of the Day
Lord Jesus, Child of Bethlehem, you emptied yourself and took the form of a servant so that the poor might eat and be satisfied at your table. Keep us from reasonable excuses. Teach us to answer your invitation today, to rejoice when you call those whom the world sets aside, and to carry your call to the streets and highways, until your house is filled. Amen.
For Meditation
- Which reasonable excuses, the field to see, the work to test, the household to care for, keep us from answering the call today instead of tomorrow?
- Where do we still believe that a place at the table is owed to us, and what would change if we remembered that Christ did not seize what was his?
- Whom has the master sent us to invite, and how can we do it with patience and kindness rather than pressure?
