“‘When you hold a banquet, invite the poor,
the
maimed, the lame and the blind.” (Lk.14:13)
Pope Francis’ Banquet
22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time,
September 1, 2013
Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24 Luke 14:1, 7-14
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory
to you, Lord
When you’re invited to a wedding banquet, don’t grab the best places at table. A
more distinguished guest than you might be invited by
the host, and then the host will say to you, “Give your place to this man.”
Embarrassed you will have to step down and take the lowest place. Rather, take
the lowest place first, and the host will say to you, “My friend, go up there
to the front table.” Then you will enjoy the esteem of the other guests at the
table. For everyone who makes
himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made
great.
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you
hold a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives
or your wealthy neighbors. They might invite you back, and then you will be
repaid. Rather, when you hold a banquet invite the poor, the maimed, the lame
and blind. Then you will indeed be blessed. They will not be able to repay you,
but the Father in heaven will repay you at the
resurrection of the just.”(Lk. 14:1, 7-14)
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
The end of summer & the beginning of
school
Tomorrow, the first Monday in September, is Labor Day in the USA. It was created by
the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal
holiday in 1894. For many of us Labor Day is `the end of summer,’ though on our
calendars summer really ends on September 21, and autumn begins on September 22.
Labor Day is characterized by one last fling at summer with parties in parks
and barbecues in backyards. For many, particularly
children and young adults, Labor Day means not only the end of summer but also the
beginning of the school-year.
Marginalizing the poor
Jesus lines up a litany of people
whom we should invite when we hold a banquet: “the poor, the maimed, the lame
and the blind.” (Lk. 14: 13) Immediately
following this passage and in the very same chapter 14 of Luke, Jesus tells a parable
which reiterates that selfsame litany: A master sends his
servant out to invite friends to a banquet, but they all make excuses for not
coming, and that infuriates the master who sends his servant out into the
streets and alleys of the town to invite “the poor, the maimed, the blind and
the lame.” (Lk. 14: 21)
These
two passages cut us to the quick! Our social interaction is often based on what
and whom we like. Jesus certainly isn’t frowning on family banquets or quiet
dinners with friends, etc. But his exhortation to “hold a banquet for those who can’t repay you” is profound. It conflicts us who are
nurtured by a society which trains us to invite to our banquets those who can
repay us, and to pass-by those who can’t. We are nurtured by a society which marginalizes
“the
poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame.”
A very unusual banquet
Some time ago the
Boston Globe carried a story about a very unusual banquet – a story about a
young lady who went out “into the streets and alleys of the town to invite the poor, the maimed, the
blind and the lame” to come to a banquet she was planning to hold. She, a bride- to-be, was planning her wedding reception at the Boston Hyatt Hotel. She had worked her way out of poverty, and had even acquired rather expensive tastes. The bill on the wedding contract came to over $13,000! But on the day the invitations were to go out, the groom got cold feet and asked for more time to think matters over! That infuriated the jilted bride-to-be, and when she tried to cancel the reception, Hyatt told her: “The contract is binding. You’re entitled to only $1,300 back. You have two options: to forfeit the rest of the down payment, or to go ahead with the banquet. We’re sorry.” That made her very angry. So she decided to go ahead with the banquet, but in an utterly strange and surprising way which reflected her humble origins.
She decided to “go out to the streets
and alleys of the town” and invite the chronically uninvited to her banquet. She sent
invitations to shelters and rescue missions throughout Boston, and invited them
to a night `out on the town.’ That summer evening, people who were used to eating leftover pizza or whatever good scraps they could find
in garbage cans were eating chicken
cordon bleu and being served hors
d’oeuvres by waiters dressed in the fine tuxedos. The chronically uninvited of
Boston ate, drank, and listened to big-band music late into the night.
That night the Hyatt Hotel hosted a banquet such as it had never hosted before.
For
the jilted bride, that unusual banquet for chronically uninvited people was an
angry expression. For a follower of Jesus that unusual banquet is exactly what the
Lord asks of us:
“When you hold a banquet, go out into the streets and alleys of the town to
invite the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame.”
Francis
is doing something new.
In these very early days of his
papacy Pope Francis has been receiving a lot of praise. That praise of Francis,
however, does not downplay or denigrate Popes John Paul II or Benedict XVI. For
one thing, there wouldn’t be a free Western Europe were it not for the charismatic
John Paul II. For another, even setting aside his many other contributions,
were it not for the humility of Benedict, whose resignation made way for a successor,
there wouldn’t be a Pope Francis.
But Francis is doing something new. (“Behold
I make all things new,” says Revelation 21:5.)
He goes out
“to the streets and alleys of the town,” and invites to the banquet the
chronically uninvited: “the poor, the maimed, the lame and
blind.” Other popes have walked among poor. John Paul II visited a favela (a
slum district) in Rio in 1980. Other popes have spoken about the poor and
economic injustice. The Church’s social justice tradition reaches back to the 19th
century Pope Leo XIII. But we’ve never seen a pope who literally and
figuratively embraces the poor, as Francis does. The highlight of his recent
trip to Brazil was his visit to the Varginha `favela’ or slum district. He felt at home among the Latin America poor, for as
Archbishop of Buenos Aires he spent a lot of time in the slums.
A pope who hugs and is hugged
Francis, indeed, is doing something
new: he makes people want to hug him! He smiles a lot and everyone seems to
feel comfortable with him, which might explain the many hugs he gives, and the
many hugs he gets from the crowds. There’s one gentle distinction we might make
between Francis and his predecessors: we might indeed admire both John Paul II
and Benedict XVI, but we would never have felt inclined to hug either of the
two!
Pope Francis, on the other hand, is
a big `papa.’ (In fact, the word for `pope’ in Italian is `papa.’) He evokes
affection from everyone - from children to the elderly. He even evokes
affection from bishops, priests and nuns. A Jesuit priest who met Pope Francis
said that he couldn’t help himself as he instinctively hugged the Supreme
Pontiff. In a Church where clerics are sometimes seen as cold and aloof, a pope
who hugs and is hugged is indeed a wonderful and welcomed sight.
Pope Francis and the marginalized
Jesus says that when we hold a banquet we should invite the
marginalized – “the poor, the maimed, the lame and blind.” When asked about the
presence of gay priests in the Church, Francis quite courageously remarked: “If
someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to
judge?” And he added: “They shouldn’t be marginalized. They’re our brothers.” Francis’
remark concerned not only gay priests but gays in general. This is probably the
very first positive remark about gayness ever made by a pope! Francis also calls for greater compassion for divorced and remarried Catholics, who have long felt marginalized in the Church. He also asks for a "deeper theology" of women who have also been marginalized. Francis is surprising and delighting the Universal Church with his remarkable shift in tone concerning the marginalized.
Conclusion
Already being repaid in this life
Pope Francis
invites to the banquet not only “the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame” but
also a Swiss Guard who stands at attention every night until dawn at the door
of his simple and very `unpapal' apartment in the Casa Santa Marta. Francis brought a chair to the Swiss Guard
and told him to sit down and rest his weary bones. Then he went back to his `unpapal’
apartment, and minutes later returned with a `banquet’ he had prepared for the
hungry guard. The `banquet’ was a panino
con marmallata - a little Italian bread roll spread with jam!
Francis invites to
the banquet not only the Swizz Guard who stands at attention at his door, but also
gays, divorced and remarried people, and anyone else who’s marginalized. Jesus promised that those who invite ”the
poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame” to the banquet will be repaid in the next life. From the huge smile that always radiates from Francis’
face it looks like this pope is already being repaid in this life.
