Dominus vobiscum.
Brothers and sisters, on this second Sunday after Pentecost, we are invited to hear from the First Epistle of Saint John as well as a brilliant parable from Gospel of Saint Luke.
Before I begin, I would like to humbly ask you to do me a favor. Think of a time in your life where you had something to be proud of. Say, you just had a baby or you got a new job or a promotion or any other accomplishment in your life. I am willing to wager that most of you, when recalling that event, you felt happiness or even joy. Who wouldn’t, right? If you’re like most people, you would tell someone else about that accomplishment and very often the following statement would be expressed:
“This is a cause for celebration!”
Now, I’m not suggesting that the celebration has to be this grand banquet of epic proportions. It could be something as simple as you going out to Burger King or someplace and having a meal with your closest family and/or friends. One of the reasons why we do this, I believe, is because when we have cause to be joyful, we want to spread that joy to others. Yes, in many ways it is about you and your accomplishments, thus it would be a candidate for the sin of pride. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with feeling pride in your accomplishments, so long as it is not narcissistic. Believe me, people will know the difference between the narcissist and the humble!
Whether or not you celebrated this accomplishment that’s in your mind with others, let us continue with this example. Say that you invited your family and friends to an outing to celebrate this accomplishment. Nowadays you’d go onto your phone, maybe to Facebook or Twitter, or you’d simply start texting everybody who you want to invite and send them all invitations to this event. To make this as desirable as possible, you included in the invite: “Free food and open bar!” While I’m not in favor of people getting so drunk that they fall under the sin of gluttony, the fact that no one has to pay for anything is really inviting.
Finally, the time of the party comes. All the food and drinks are prepared, the music is on something appropriate, and your house is spotless. The hour of the party is upon you, and you let everybody know that if they’re not already on their way to start the trip because all the food is ready to go. Not too long after, your phone goes off, and it’s not what you wanted to see at all. You’re getting texts of people saying that they can’t make it….
“I’m sorry, I just proposed to my girlfriend, we won’t be able to make it.”
“Hey, I really hate to do this to you. My mother invited me last minute to an outing and I can’t get there in time. Sorry!”
“Yo dude...yeah...I completely forgot about your party! I’m still in bed. Rain check?”
This would be upsetting. Imagine if everyone who you invited said the same thing?! Everyone who you invited canceled on you at the last minute. Imagine how upset you would be. At first, you would be upset, then you would probably be furious, and then after a while, you would probably feel anguish. After all, you catered the whole event with food and drinks that might go to the trash instead of to your stomachs.
It is at this point you could do one of two things. You could go berserk and in a sorrow induced rage, or, you can do what this man did in the Luke’s gospel:
“Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant: Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the feeble, and the blind, and the lame” (Luke 14:21).
Imagine going out into the community, or going to those who are barely acquaintances and telling them, “Hey, I’ve got all this food going to waste! Come and have a party with me!” In Luke’s gospel, the Servant had to go back out and find even more people to his Master’s party. Imagine telling your new guests to go out and spread the word that if they show up soon, they’ll have a good chance of being fed!
What a way to rescue the party.
Recall the people who you did invite. Of course, you would feel angry with them for canceling on you at the last possible moment. You would probably have excuse after excuse that is floating in your head that you have to sift through. As a Christian, you want to be able to find the goodness in their hearts and eliminate the possible legit excuses. So you’d go through your phone and you read what the excuses are, hoping to find the obvious reasons why bailing out of your party would be acceptable. Imagine if there was an emergency and someone was in the hospital, or if their car broke down or got into an accident, or if someone replied to the original invite, “I might not be able to make it, I’ll do my best.” Those are the more obvious forgivable excuses.
But what about the excuses that I mentioned earlier? The proposal could have been made at another time. The friend could have said, as controversial as this is to say to one’s, “I’m sorry, but my friend is celebrating a huge accomplishment and I promised I would go.” The one who slept in has, in my eyes, no excuse, and none could be made unless there was a good reason for sleeping in. Spending the night in the ER would be more than acceptable, unless the ER was short for “Endless Rum” instead of “Emergency Room.” What are we to make of them?
Look to John’s first epistle. John warns us: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in himself” (1 John 3:15). We already learned from our blessed Lord in St. Matthew’s gospel when he said: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (5:21-22). Christ preached that being angry with someone is just as guilty as the one who kills another.
Of course, no one can not be angry at someone else! Even I get angry at someone and most of the time they either don’t even know I exist or I’ve been out of their lives for decades. Thankfully, the very nature of Christ’s mission saves us from this sin being held against us: “….because he hath laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16). In other words, we must be like our blessed Lord and be able to love our neighbors the same love Christ had for us. John concludes with the following: “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (3:17).
This is why, brothers and sisters, being a Christian is becoming a glutton for suffering. It is at times like these where you must make the decision as to how you choose to interact with those who bailed on you. You cannot, under any circumstances, be angry at or hate them. Instead, let them pass by and wish them well. Why am I suggesting this? Recall this imaginary party that’s going on with a group of strangers. They are all there to enjoy free food and drinks, and they are celebrating that they have a warm meal in their stomach. I am sure that they would repay your kindness with their offer of congratulations to you. This is why you had a party to begin with! You don’t care, at the end of the day, who shows up. The point was to spread the joy that you felt concerning your accomplishment to others in the best way you know how.
At the end of the parable, we see the Master’s final instruction to the Servant: “But I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited, shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:24). Imagine if someone who said no at the last minute came up to your house and asked to come in. Lets say that it was the woman who wanted to spend time with her mother. The obvious rebuke would be, “You knew about my party, and you chose your mother over me. I’m sorry but there’s no more food for you. I’ll see you around.” An argument would probably ensue, and you might loose a friend. Remember John’s epistle: don’t love someone because of what they say, love someone because of what they do. If what someone says and what someone does no longer match, they do not love you.
Brothers and sisters, this is the Kingdom of Heaven we are striving to enter. God is calling to us, all of us, to come and enjoy the great feast of eternal paradise. God has sent out prophets, priests, and who knows who or what else for each and every one of us. God even sent his only begotten Son to pay the price for our sins so we may share in God’s eternal glory.
When the hour comes for God to summon us to do what we were meant to do on this earth though, people start making excuses, and bad excuses. Every excuse anyone can make, regardless of the situation, is telling someone, “I am going to reject you in such a way that it will ease my conscience with no regard for how it makes you feel.” As I said before, there are a lot of excuses that are justified. If I had a choice between attending a friend’s party or going to the hospital because my wife is in the ER, I’m going to the hospital ten times out of ten. When the excuse is not justified however, we must be prepared to face the consequences. This is not a lie of omission, it is merely making a choice to chose who or what is more important. Justified or otherwise, someone is going to be disappointed.
In conclusion, always be mindful of ensuring that you honor your commitments. If you say that you are going to be a Christian, make sure to be a Christian when the hour comes. If you say that you are a follower of Christ, make sure that you actually follow Christ. If you say that you are going to be charitable, make sure you are charitable. On the other hand, if you say that you are angry with someone, make sure that you stop being angry with them as soon as possible! Why? At some point in our lives, God will call us home, and there will be no more excuses that will be made to avoid death. If we continue to sin and make excuses, we shall endure the fires of hell until the Last Judgment. If we repent, do our absolute best, and answer the calls that God sends us, we shall surely fall asleep in the Lord and be in paradise with God.
