In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Luke 14. 16-24
The Lord said this parable: “A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'”
A surface reading of this parable might leave us wondering what the issue is. A rich man throws a party. Other men make their excuses and don’t attend. And their excuses seem reasonable, particularly the final one. After all, who would expect a man to cut short his honeymoon? But parables require more than surface reading. Concerning this one, the Fathers tell us that the man represents God and the banquet stands for the Kingdom of Heaven. By refusing to attend, these men are rejecting God and eternal happiness. And for what? Let us examine their reasons for declining the invitation.
The first has bought a piece of new ground that he must inspect. This, the Fathers tell us, represents an over attachment to the material things of this world. This man, therefore, in turning his back on what will last forever for something that will fade into nothingness at the end of the ages. The five yoke of oxen the next man has bought stand for the five senses. In other words, the pleasures we can enjoy through taste and touch and all the rest. This man is saying to no to eternal happiness for the sake of things that will last but a moment or two.
And what of the final man, the one who has just been wed? Is our Lord telling us that we should not marry? Not at all. Marriage is a holy thing, given to us by God and blessed by him from the time of the Creation down to the present age. Some, of course, are called to other ways of life, such as monastics; but for those called to marriage, to marry is a very good thing indeed. However, one must get one’s priorities right. The relationship a person’s has with their husband or wife is rightly one that is to be the most important in their life; but it remains a thing of this life. One still has to view it in the context of eternity and being in right relationship with God.
We must recall the words of Christ elsewhere in Sacred Scripture, where He tells His followers to hate their mother and father and sisters and brothers. He does not mean, of course, that we must literally hate them. A Christian is never to hate anyone; he is to love others as he loves himself. It is rather that all earthly relationships are to pale in comparison to the love we have for God. And if we begin to see the love we have for spouse, or father, or brother as being on a par with the love we have for God, then we are in serious spiritual danger.
None of this means that we are to neglect the love of spouse, or father, or brother; or neglect showing love to all others; for, as we are reminded in the parable of the Good Samaritan, all are our neighbours and entitled to our loving help in times of need. Indeed, this is something that this parable also reminds us of.
Recall that after the invited three make their excuses, the man sends his servant out to scour the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame. The servant, the Fathers are agreed, is Christ who came into the world to save sinners. But they also tell us that this freely offered generosity of God is given not only with no expectation of repayment, but it is something that those to whom it is offered have no possibility of repaying. Just as the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame will never be able to repay the rich householder for his invitation into his home to feast, so we can never repay God for His free gift to us of salvation and eternal life.
This, the Blesséd Augustine tells us, should remind us to offer help to those who cannot repay us. In the parable, we are the poor and maimed and blind and lame represent us. And so, in this life we should freely give to the poor and maimed and blind and lame and all others in need. We need the salvation God offers us; they need whatever help we can offer them. We cannot, of course, repay God for all He has done for us by helping them; but yet, as Christ himself tells us, the help we do offer to them is seen by Him as if it was offered directly to Him. And, as I hope none need reminding, the salvation we hope and pray for is dependent on the help we offer them. Amen.
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