The washing of feet, the kiss of greeting and the anointing of the head were customary signs of welcome shown to a guest at a meal in Jesus’ time. Such courtesies seem to have flown out of the window at the meal recorded in today’s Gospel. There the guests pushed forward for the places of honor and Jesus chided them for their bad manners.
To this heavenly meal, God will invite all who are lowly of heart and who acknowledge their need of salvation. They will receive the invitation, “My friend, move up higher.†Those who in their self-righteousness consider themselves entitled to the best places will, to their shame, have to take the lowest place. The parable echoes the first reading: “The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly,†for the Lord “accepts the homage of the humble.†It also echoes Mary’s Magnificat found earlier in St. Luke’s Gospel and heard at Evening Prayer each day: “He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly. He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty.â€
The overwhelming love of Christ urges us to be one with those who are in need, to embrace them as St. Francis embraced the leper, so that we may love in a selfless, practical way. They await our invitation so that together we may be at that heavenly banquet “when the virtuous rise again.â€