OMELIE / Omelie EN

28 ago 2022

28/08/2022 – 22nd Sunday O. T. - year C

28/08/2022 – 22^nd Sunday O. T. - year C

Reading 1 SIR 3,17-18.20.28-29 Psalm 67 Psalm HEB 12,18-19.22-24 Gospel LK 14,1.7-14

The letter to the Hebrews makes clear for us the big difference between the people of the Old Covenant and the one of the New. The first was afraid of being in the presence of God. The knowledge they had of Him was frightening for them. We, instead, obviously thanks to Jesus, are happy to get closer to God: with Him we know we can find the angels and the spirits of the good, the holy and above all the Mediator of the Covenant, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He has made us think of God as a Father, He has described His love to us, nay, He has allowed us to enjoy it in all its sweetness, its mercy, its attentiveness towards everyone, small and great, poor and rich, good and evil.

Also in the story in today’s gospel we see Jesus, God’s Son, aware of the people who surrounded Him. His eyes are always open, His uncomplicated gaze sees the meaning of what is happening around Him. He wants to dish out wisdom even where He is invited for lunch, because there too, underneath bad manners, is hiding the selfishness and arrogance of the man. Even better, Jesus always wants to guide everyone to the kingdom of God He has come to announce. In fact, by saying “when you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet…” He is thinking to the invitation God Himself is addressing everyone to take part in His joy. The wedding Jesus is thinking of is certainly the celebration of the fullness of His love for the new people.

When God invites you to His banquet, don’t think you deserve anything, don’t think you are better than everyone else: if you are, He certainly knows it, so you are not missing out on anything if you take the worst place! These words in particular are aimed to the Pharisees, who thought they were the first in God’s eyes, and they were confident in their ability to follow the law. Starting from this certainty they were lead to feel superior to others, who they despised. In God’s eyes, those who are just and pleasing to Him are not those who are able to follow the law, but those who love the Son He has sent to love us, to forgive us and to save us.

They who love Jesus then know that the merit of their salvation goes to Him, and He is the reason for their greatness. They who love Jesus do not feel the need to look great in front of men, because they think all of them are small and miserable. The true greatness for men is cooperating with God to love the very people who are the weakest, most incapable, most suffering. Therefore you too, when you will decide to have a banquet, will do as God did, and you will invite those who are not invited by anyone, those who cannot ever repay you unless they do so through God’s very own hands.

Jesus’ word, which echoes and adds onto that old wisdom, is an invitation to humility. Humility is pleasant to God, because God Himself is humble. Jesus, when He invites us to imitate Him, He is inviting us to imitate Him in being humble.

His Mother too, Mary, knows she is loved by God because of her humility. Humility is not lowering ourselves by ignoring our dignity, but is attributing truthfully to God every good thing we have, because we have received them from Him. This humility, which is aware that everything is received, becomes knowledge and then desire to imitate. We want to become like the one who has been generous with us: this iss why, with generosity, we try to give out acts of love where we know we want to receive anything back. From the acts of gratuitous love, from the time and the efforts, given without reward, comes to us the most serene and deep joy, because the gratuity is making us part of what God is.