WE’VE  BEEN  INVITED 

TO  A  BANQUET 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 31 Monday in Ordinary time is, “We’ve Been Invited to a Banquet.”

Can you believe it?

We’ve been invited to a banquet - or since it’s 12:10 - should we call this a luncheon?

Either way, we heard Jesus say in today’s gospel, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner….”

LOOK AROUND THE ROOM

We look around and we see all these people - here in church right now.  We are lots of people. All of us have been invited. We see young and old, male and female.

Luke even says Jesus was in the house of a leading Pharisee.  And we bow our heads and say, “That’s me at times.  I hope not the leading Pharisee, but I’ve been there, done that at times.” [Cf. Luke 14: 12-14]

We look around and see Jesus sitting there smiling, pleasant, breaking bread and sharing wine and words with those around him.

We  spot Paul and Mary and the apostles as well.

We hone - rhymes with phone - we hone in on Jesus as he says, “When you hold a banquet - invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.

And we close our eyes and sip that statement and digest that description and we open our eyes and Jesus winks at us.

We breathe a great  burst of air - we sigh - because we are just realizing we  are blind, lame, poor and crippled and we have been invited - along with all these other folks.

All these years we felt guilty that we didn’t invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind to our meals.  Surprise we’re it.

ST. PAUL IS ALSO AT THE BANQUET

And we turn to Paul and he says to us - elbowing us - that first sentence in today’s first reading from Romans, “Brothers and sisters: The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”  [Cf. Romans 11:29-36.]

The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

Then you hear him say, “Oh, the depths and riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”

CONCLUSION

We lean back on our banquet seats.

We inwardly think, “Great. Wow. we’ve been fed today.  Good think I accepted the invitation to come to this banquet today.”

Thank you God.