22nd Sunday Ordinary Time August 31, 2025

Readings: Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29, Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24, Luke 14:1,7-14

The readings today all point to the same idea. Sirach tells us to be gentle and humble. Hebrews reminds us that we are part of something bigger than we can see. And in the Gospel, Jesus teaches that when we welcome the poor, the sick, and the outcast, we welcome blessings that will last forever.

In the parable of the wedding Banquet Jesus is not advising the guests to automatically take a lower place in order to be called up higher beside the hosts, but states that the result such conduct, of taking a lower place from the beginning, in humility, will naturally lead to a higher place.

The point being made by Jesus is not so much about marriage etiquette, but an approach to life and God. In such a realm it is God who will humble or exalt. It is the interior attitude, which matures throughout one’s life that will be taken into account when each stand before God at the end of life.

Moving from the wedding feast imagery, Jesus turns to the host. The host is advised not to be in the habit of only inviting to his home for lunch or dinner his relatives and wealthy neighbors. Rather, hospitality must be open to all, and especially the poor and the handicapped. As God calls to himself such ones, disciples of Jesus must do likewise.

Being a follower of Jesus calls for such openness. As God acts and as Jesus acted in his lifetime, so should the followers of Christ always act. This is another aspect of the paradox of Christian life, that what looks like foolishness is in fact divinely inspired wisdom. Jesus asks in another place in the Gospels, found in Luke 6:32-34, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?”

Jesus concludes the text today with the notion that those who act justly in the full biblical sense, that is, living deeply religious lives in a relationship of intimacy with God, will be rewarded by God at the resurrection.

Fr. Terry