Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

“Triumph of Christ with Angels and Cherubs”
by Bernardino Lanino, 1570’s

 
Readings for Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time [1]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [2]
 
Readings and Commentary:[3]
 
Reading 1: Philippians 2:5-11
 
Brothers and sisters:
Have among yourselves the same attitude
that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and, found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
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Commentary on Phil 2:5-11
 
This passage from Philippians is known as the kenotic hymn, the song of emptying. As part of this familiar passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, Christ empties himself of the complete divinity that is his essence and accepts the human condition. As true man, he suffers the ultimate humiliation of death (on the cross). 
 
The second section of the hymn focuses on God’s resulting actions of exaltation. The Christian sings to God’s great glory in Christ, proclaiming him Lord and Savior. In the context of St. Paul’s instructive letters, this is clearly to be used as (or possibly was already in use as) a liturgical prayer or song. Used in the context of the Lord’s passion and resurrection, it provides a counterpoint to the elevated status of Jesus revealed as the Messiah, the Only Begotten Son of God. The attitude of Christ is one of humility.
 
CCC: Phil 2:5-8 461; Phil 2:5 520, 1694, 2842; Phil 2:6-11 2641, 2667; Phil 2:6 449; Phil 2:7 472, 602, 705, 713, 876, 1224; Phil 2:8-9 908; Phil 2:8 411, 612, 623; Phil 2:9-11 449, 2812; Phil 2:9-10 434; Phil 2:10-11 201; Phil 2:10 633, 635
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 22:26b-27, 28-30ab, 30e, 31-32
 
R. (26a) I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.

I will fulfill my vows before those who fear him.
The lowly shall eat their fill;
they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
“May your hearts be ever merry!”
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.

All the ends of the earth
shall remember and turn to the LORD;
All the families of the nations
shall bow down before him.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.

For dominion is the LORD’s,
and he rules the nations.
To him alone shall bow down
all who sleep in the earth.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.

To him my soul shall live;
my descendants shall serve him.
Let the coming generation be told of the LORD
that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
the justice he has shown.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
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Commentary on Ps 22:26b-27, 28-30ab, 30e, 31-32
 
Psalm 22 is an individual lament.  The psalmist, in unusually passionate terms, describes the devotion of the faithful and the trust that God’s rule over all will be just.  The final strophe is a pledge of faithfulness for all generations to come.  The emotional tone of this psalm matches that of the kenotic hymn from Philippians 2:5-11.
 
CCC: Ps 22 304; Ps 22:27 716
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Gospel: Luke 14:15-24
 
One of those at table with Jesus said to him,
“Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.”
He replied to him,
“A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,
he dispatched his servant to say to those invited,
‘Come, everything is now ready.’
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,
‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;
I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have just married a woman,
and therefore I cannot come.’
The servant went and reported this to his master.
Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant,
‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out
and still there is room.’
The master then ordered the servant,
‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows
and make people come in that my home may be filled.
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
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Commentary on Lk 14:15-24
 
This story about the dinner and the invited guests from St. Luke’s Gospel (a continuation of the meal he shares with the Pharisees) is an analogy for those of the Jewish faith who reject Jesus as the Messiah. In the parable, the invitees (representing the Hebrew peoples) give all manner of excuses for not attending the dinner (representing the heavenly banquet in the kingdom of God).   As a moral to the story, he tells them that those to whom faith in God was first given (the Hebrews) have rejected the Law and the Prophets they hold sacred, so others (the Gentiles portrayed in the story as those in "the highways and hedgerows”) will enjoy the fulfillment of God's promise.
 
"After invitations had been issued and accepted, it was the custom to send a slave to fetch the guests as near to the appointed hour as all was ready. Incredibly, in this story, every last one of the invited guests comes up with a last-minute excuse and will not come. One is preoccupied with a newly bought field that he wants to look over; one is taken up with newly acquired oxen that he wants to try out; one has recently married and would prefer to stay home with his wife; and so on it goes. These people have the kind of preoccupations with the material affairs of life that, in Luke’s view, can be a most serious trap (see 17:31; 8:14; etc.), or the kind of attachment to family relationships." [4]
 
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Reflection:
 
We too are invited to the great feast.  We were called and asked to come to the eucharistic banquet.  Jesus tells this familiar story to peers, members of Jewish leadership whom he has been chastising.  The Lord rightfully expects these leaders to understand God’s concern for the poor, but they are above such “common” things.  They would rather remain aloof, hosting lavish dinner parties at which they can debate the minutia of Mosaic Law.  They invite itinerant rabbis to join them to debate interpretation.  The Lord is not amused.  He has just told his host that rather than inviting social peers and social leaders to his party (in hopes that his wealthy friends will do the same for him), he should invite the poor and hungry from whom no such reciprocal treatment might be expected.
 
One of those guests sitting near him just missed the point again, taking Jesus' previous remark as some sort of theological debate as opposed to a corrective statement.  The remark, "Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God," probably frustrates the Lord. He responds by telling the guests that while they (as part of what they think of as the “chosen race”) have heard God’s law and have been invited to follow it (thereby gaining the reward promised), by rejecting Jesus’ teaching (and his identity) they have forfeited their claim to a place in that heavenly banquet.
 
He goes back to his earlier point and tells these high-ranking Jewish scholars that the poor and the hungry will be invited first to that great feast in the kingdom of God and they in turn will be followed by those in the byways (Gentiles) while those first invited will be left outside.
 
We too are invited to the great feast!  We too are called to the eucharistic celebration, marrying our temporal bodies to the immortal soul of the Lord.  We are reminded that entrance to the heavenly feast requires the attitude of Christ which, as St. Paul’s hymn tells us, is one of humility.  How could we feel otherwise?  We were invited from the byways ourselves.  We hope to come before the one who laid down his life for our lives.
 
The great message provided today is captured in the kenotic hymn: Christ emptied himself of his divinity so he would experience human death and thereby save the whole human race from the death to sin.  Our attitude must be like his.  Today, even as we do our civic duty, we ask for his guidance, that we might follow his example and, in doing so, find our place in the heavenly banquet in our own time.
 
Pax
 

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[1] The picture used today is “Triumph of Christ with Angels and Cherubs” by Bernardino Lanino, 1570’s.
[2] S.S. Commemoratio
[3] The readings are taken from the New American Bible, with the exception of the psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] John Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, vol. 35B, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1993), 758.