Sunday, August 31, 2025

The First Places

"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 other guests.  For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

JESUS also addressed the man who had invited HIM, and said, 'When you give a lunch or a dinner, don't invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives, or your wealthy neighbors.  For surely, they will also invite you in return, and you will be repaid.  When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.  Fortunate are you then, because they cannot repay you.  You will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright. " - Luke 14:7-14 

(Here JESUS develops a biblical proverb inviting us to be modest in social gatherings.  Such behavior befits GOD's children.  Whatever the area of human activity may be, we should let others seek the first place, while stepping on other people as they do so.  We know that what matters is not what is seen:  GOD knows how to exalt the humble and place them where it best suits HIM. 
 
Moreover, when we go from the earthly church to the Kingdom of heaven, there will be changes in who occupies the first places.  Someone who was pope, or bishop or a prominent "Catholic" may count less than the little old lady who was selling newspapers.

Every one of us seeks to be near those who are above us, since we think we benefit more from being connected with those who are superior than with those who are inferior.

JESUS' warning points to one of the main causes of injustice.  We all share in the guilt when we decide with whom it is more beneficial to be associated; consequently, everyone tries to climb higher, always leaving the weakest in the most isolated and helpless position. 

It would be a strange sight to see public officials pay more attention to the poorly dressed, or to see the poorest areas supplied with water and power before the residential districts, or to see doctors go to the rural areas to practice.)
  
On-Site

No comments:

Post a Comment