Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 12:5-16ab; Luke 14:15-24)
In “Revelation” Flannery O’Connor presents a proud woman who
shows contempt on others. Mrs. Turpin is especially disdainful of the poor and
racial minorities. She believes that she
and people like her will enter heaven but is at least doubtful of the rest of
humanity. Then a girl, not coincidently
named “Mary Grace,” calls Mrs. Turpin an “old wart hog” from hell. The name knocks the woman from her high horse. While washing her pigs, Mrs. Turpin has a
vision of the people she has disdained entering heaven while she is left on
earth. The story recalls today’s gospel
parable.
Jesus tells his own short story about people who refuse the
offer of participating in the heavenly banquet.
They have excuses, for sure, and not necessarily limp ones. They have to make money or to spend time with
the family. The point is, however, that
the Kingdom must be one’s top priority. Even
the poor are not granted entrance into the Kingdom because they are poor. Rather they will experience the fullness of life
because they have placed God first.
We may find ourselves looking down on the poor as lazy or
unprincipled. We better take care of
such an attitude. It may mean that we
have given lower priority to the Kingdom than to worldly success. In place of disdain, we might try to help or
at least to pray for those in need. As
indicated often in the gospels, this kind of concern is a true Kingdom value.
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