RBWords

     Although I love to cook and having a meal with friends is one of my favorite activities, I cannot say I enjoy formal meals or banquets.  I dread "head tables" or those large round tables where conversation is confined to right and left.  In Jesus' time, dining could be a complicated social event.  Notice that the scene in today's gospel is set at the home of a "leading Pharisee."  The usual arrangement in Roman times was in the form of a long horseshoe with the "head table" being in the middle and the rest of the tables stretching down both sides.  Guests were seated according to social status.  (I experienced this personally when I entered religious life and learned that seating in the novitiate rectory and other Dominican houses was according to seniority!).  One wonders where Jesus would have been seated?  When he noticed the jockeying for the places of honor, he suggests that the best strategy for getting noticed is to sit lower and be publicly called up to a higher place!  The medieval expression that has come down to us is "sitting above the salt!"

     Two major lessons come forth.  The first is that one's own estimation of oneself may not be the estimation that others have!  Having the humility to not worry about it and let things sort themselves out can be scary but ultimately very rewarding.  God's gifts are sufficient whether or not anyone else notices them.  The second lesson that Jesus offers, in the second half of today's gospel, involves the invitation process of the time.  It was not uncommon for a person of lower rank to invite a person of higher status to dine in the hope that the invitation would be reciprocated!  However, a person of lower rank might dread being invited to the home of someone of higher rank because returning the favor could be very expensive!  Jesus tells the folks of higher rank to invite those who cannot repay them.  In many ways, I think God does that to all of us.  We are invited to God's banquet and we know we could never repay.  Having the humility simply to accept the invitation and join the party as best we can will mean a great reward.  

     Do we see ourselves in either of the two lessons Jesus teaches us today?  AMEN