Mary The Queen Parish--Philippines

The one who humbles himself will be raised up

In today’s Gospel reading, there is a challenge for all of us. At the beginning of the Gospel, Luke tells us that Jesus was invited to and went to a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and Luke adds, “He was being carefully watched.”

Jesus was being watched because he had already stirred up a lot of ill-feelings among the Pharisees by exposing their hypocrisy and their fake religion and religious spirit. The Pharisees had very strict rules. They abided very carefully by the 613 laws of the Torah. They were human laws, but to the Pharisees they were very important. They even took the place of God’s law of love. So Jesus was exposing their hypocrisy.

But Jesus said, “That is not the way.” He allowed the meal to be interrupted and he told the parable about “Don’t just take, immediately, the highest place.” These were people who were ready to exalt themselves, give exaggerated importance to themselves. Jesus wanted to remind them that dignity and worth were not based on external factors.

Remember Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus said, “Look at the flowers of the field. They do not toil or spin, and yet how beautifully arrayed they are. Are you not of much more value than the flowers of the field? Why do you have this false sense of how to make yourself important? Accept who you are — one made by God, drawn into being by God’s love.”

Today, we might not have the same kind of rules about where to sit at banquets and so on, although there may be some of that, and some of us may always want to be in the top spot, in the spotlight.

People exaggerate their importance because they do not realize that the externals do not make one important or give one value. Jesus wants us to recognize the worth that we have because God made us in God’s own image. We do not have to put on airs to make us feel important. Just being who we are,

God will raise us up and exalt us. Jesus challenged the Pharisees – and he challenges us — even more with his second example.

When you have a feast or a party, Jesus said, do not just invite family members or wealthy people, people who you know can reciprocate your hospitality. Instead, he said, go out into the highways and byways.

Our parish had the opportunity to do this last Sunday on the Feast of Mary the Queen. Rich and poor parish organizations shared their food with the rich and the poor alike. The rich stood side by side with the poor to receive the free food that was being served. This is so different from just doing something for the poor. That is what Jesus is trying to get across to us today. Do not simply be with the rich and for the rich, but be with the poor and for the poor in everything that you do.

We must make sure that we do not become exclusive, that we do not invite only people like ourselves. We have to give up the idea of being exclusive. That is our hope for our parish family. As we reflect today on what Jesus tells us, let us take to heart the deep message that Jesus proclaims, and that with God’s help we will live out what he asks of us.