Daily Reading
First Reading
Philippians 2:5-11
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Psalm
Psalm 22:26b-27, 28-30ab, 30e, 31-32
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
Gospel Reading
Luke 14:15-24
One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
Reflection
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of a man giving a great dinner. His sending out of servants to gather those invited parallels our call to be evangelizers.
The risen Lord calls the apostles and us to go forth and to do the work of gathering in: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations”—that is, draw them into the very dynamics of the divine life.
Hans Urs von Balthasar has noticed that, in the biblical context, mission and identity are tightly bound together. The heroes of Scripture don’t really know who they are until they have received a commission from God. Thus Saul of Tarsus, when he is radically reoriented as the apostle to the Gentiles, is given the name “Paul.” Being sent, he knows who he is.
Paul is not pursuing his own happiness; rather, he is like a letter, written and posted by another. Announcing the risen Jesus is the beginning, middle, and end of Paul’s life, his raison d’être, his morning refreshment and evening rest. Like his great biblical forebears and like his descendants in the Christian tradition, Paul is a messenger. Nothing more or less.