Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
When you invite the Lord Jesus into your home, you can expect things to be shaken up; you can expect malformed, preconceived notions to be adjusted to a proper, divine alignment.
But, are we willing to take that risk – – the risk of stepping outside our comfort zone with the sometimes-challenging message of Christ our welcomed guest?
In today’s passage from Luke’s gospel, Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus into his home, probably having heard of some of his wonderful works and speeches but not really knowing what to expect while the Teacher is reclining at table with him.
Very often, conversations at the supper table or over drinks – – whether at home or in a restaurant, whether with family or with colleagues – – can lead to making comparisons between ourselves and others, or, even to out-and-out declarations: He never makes his deadlines. She doesn’t really care about her work or this company. He’s only friendly with me because he expects some kind of gain. He doesn’t even try. She just wants money. He’s incompetent and lazy. She’s an embarrassment.
There’s a fine line, it seems, between pointing out the general or specific faults of others (which many already see) and sinning by detraction, that is, needlessly tearing someone down by announcing their sins and their shortcomings to those who need not know. This latter case is often done to show the moral superiority of the person relating the peccadillos in comparison to the allegedly morally “inferior” person. But am I any better than the person whose shortcomings I’m relating?
When we invite Jesus into our home . . . when we consciously offer a little, private prayer before sitting down with colleagues, friends, and family at the conference table, supper table, and so forth (something like, “Lord, help me to act and speak as You would act and speak”), we may be surprised at Jesus’ lack of annoyance and frustration with the person we find difficult, and we may even doubly shocked at Jesus’ compassionate mercy He lavishes upon the person we would normally see as very different from ourselves. For, indeed, Jesus sees what we often cannot and therefore need His help in seeing: He sees how this person, whom He willed into existence out of infinite love, plays his or her role in the whole history of salvation.
When you invite the Lord Jesus into your home, you can expect things to be shaken up. The invitation isn’t sent through the mail but through our conscious effort in prayer. Come, Lord Jesus! Help me to see those I find difficult as you see them, with eyes of love and compassion and mercy.