Readings (Year C):
Sirach 3:17 – 18, 20, 28 – 29
Psalms 68:4 – 5, 6 – 7, 10 – 11
Hebrews 12:18 – 19, 22 – 24a
Luke 14:1, 7 – 14
Reflection: Who is invited to the table?
Years ago, I sat down at an already crowded dinner table at my community’s motherhouse.
“Are you sure there’s room,” I asked when they motioned me over.
“You can always make room for one more person at a round table,” a sister told me as everyone squeezed together and stacked their trays to the side.
I think about this interaction a lot because it taught me a simple lesson about making room for one more person. Today’s gospel presents a similar parable. When holding a party, who do we invite? The people that we know well? Or do we invite people whom we have never met? What would happen if we invited people whom we did not know? On a practical level, we may not know how to prepare. What foods do they eat? What do they like to drink? Do they have any allergies? But, I believe, those are surmountable concerns. We can prepare a wide variety of foods and drinks to make a guest feel welcome.
But that’s not the point of today’s gospel. The question is really about who we invite into our lives or who we allow ourselves to be invited by.
In today’s polarized world, with the binaries of liberal and conservative, or progressive and traditional, it is hard to come to a place where we feel comfortable bridging those divides and reaching outside our own circles. But today’s gospel should be a stark wake-up call to many of us who do all we can to avoid inviting an unknown person into our house for a meal. The gospel reminds us that we are to invite people from “highways and the byways” to break bread with us and, likewise, to accept invitations to unknown places. It challenges us to move beyond preconceived notions of who should be invited to a meal and presents us with an opportunity to build relationships with persons we may never otherwise encounter.
This time of encounter is a chance to move beyond the boxes of identity that have the potential to trap us in worlds with only “our own” people. I can only imagine the side comments at the dinner party referenced in today’s gospel: “What are they doing here? Who invited them?” It reminds us that we are called to invite people from all circles and not just people with whom we already agree. It’s about making the invitation open and inclusive.
In this time of division, we need to look beyond the polarization. Whom would you invite to a meal? What would a party with an inclusive invitation list look like? Might it lead to a transformative conversation around racism/anti-racism, LGBTQ+ rights, indigenous rights, immigration, climate change, democracy, the church, healthcare?
What would the conversation look like if we brought people together to talk about the common good, to truly listen and hear each other’s stories? Who would be included? This week I challenge all of us to dream about how we can create an inclusive dinner invitation where we can truly live the life of discipleship modeled in today’s gospel and remember that community is not insular. The building of the beloved community requires all of us.
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