Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Lk 14:1, 7-11
October 29, 2022 | Saturday

Today’s Gospel

One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.

Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to take the places of honor. And he said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited; and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you, ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat! Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you, ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Today’s Reflection:

The Pharisees who loved the place of honor at banquets always wanted to attract public attention. They loved to be put in the limelight. Oftentimes, consciously or unconsciously, like them, our desire for attention also encumbers our response to discipleship, which presupposes giving up even our own selves, who we are and what we have. Even the very idea of having been chosen by Jesus to be his disciple is something we should be ready to give up. This perhaps is the hardest venture a disciple should do in his life. Hankering after affirmation from others disappears when your self-worth banishes. It becomes easier to love and serve others without expecting anything in return. When we deprive ourselves of any mundane ambition, we can be assured that God’s spirit will exalt us, in the end, at his heavenly banquet. /Vulnerasti, 2022