31st Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 05th November 2019 — Gospel: Lk 14,15-24
Superabundant Hospitality
In the parable of the declined invitations, no one who was invited wants to come to the banquet. The respondents have their own priorities. They are led by the inordinate attachments: new things (a piece of land, five yoke of oxen) or new situations (just married). So the banquet has to be filled with the kind of people who never received invitations: the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. In this way, this parable once again sheds light on the vision and mission of Jesus. Thus the marginalized, who have nothing, have received places in the kingdom and were filled by God’s unconditional love. They bring no beauty, no dignity or honour to the banquet. This ‘banquet’ imagery conveys what the Kingdom of God is all about. Unlike the Kingdoms of this world, Kingdom of God is not all about power and domination. In His kingdom all are invited and honoured with the superabundant hospitality of God. It depends upon each one of us to shed our inordinate attachments to respond fully to God’s invitation and to receive His hospitality.
