Today's Gospel
contains two teachings of similar styles. Both start with when, When you go to a
banquet and When you give a banquet.
Both have a cautioning phrase, don’t. Don't sit at a high place, lest you be put
down, and Don’t put out a spread for
the rich to impress them, lest you already receive your reward. And both
have the teaching, but, But when you go
to a banquet and But when you give a
banquet.
The Lord is not
playing Miss Manners. He's not giving lessons in proper etiquette. He is
teaching us the proper way to view ourselves and others. He is teaching us
about honor, respect, and, particularly, about humility.
A number of
years ago there was a terrible article entitled You are where you sit. Part of it is as
follows:
"In Hollywood
you are where you sit. This is called power seating. A strategically placed table indicates to the
community your prominent and important position in the industry. It is so
important that major studios assign a full time PR person to make sure the
studio doesn't play second fiddle to anyone. One television producer had his
secretary call before a meal and politely note that if the table isn't in the
right place, her boss wouldn't go. One producer put it this way, ‘Information
is power. I don't want to be seen seated with two dentists and three veterinarians. It ruins my image. They have nothing to offer
me".
That is
horrible! What is worse is that we are all tempted to do this. Are we concerned with whom we are seen
sitting with in the cafeteria, at the business lunch, at a social occasion when
there isn’t assigned seating? If that is the case, then we need to listen
closely to that first instruction.
The first dinner
instruction speaks about who we are before the Lord. We are told that we
shouldn't think so highly of ourselves that we put ourselves over other people.
Symbolically, we shouldn't move to the best table at the banquet thinking that
we are so much better than everyone else.
There are many
people who imply that are better than others because they have had a spiritual
experience or are members of a spiritual support group, “You haven't made this
movement, you haven't visited this shrine, well, you're just not up there,
spiritually," they say without using words. A truly holy person would
never belittle the faith-life of another person. The first dinner instruction
encourages us to recognize who we are before the Lord, not to be concerned with
making believe we are better than others.
And who are we
before the Lord? We are people with gifts and with shortcomings, just like
everyone else. Our value comes from God’s gracious gift of His Love to us. What
matters is what He has given us, not what we have taken on ourselves. What
matters is where He places us at the table of the Banquet of Love, not where we
think we should be seated.
The second part
of the gospel speaks about honoring people for favors to come later.
The second
dinner instruction, about not looking for pay-backs, tells us to be sincere. The
Christian attitude should be to care genuinely for others, not try to buy them.
We need to be concerned with whom others are, not what they can do for us. When
we do that we are honoring the Lord who is present within them. Jesus says, Invite those who cannot repay you. This
teaching is in direct contrast to the “What’s in it for me mentality,” that
motivates so many people. Christians are to be different from the people of the
world.
So, the two
dinner instructions remind us that we are not the center of the world. God is! Our
value does not come from how others view us.
Our success is not due to what others can do for us. Our value, our
success comes from our relationship to our Center, our God. That is humility! ■
