
Link to Gospel Reading: Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
LUKE 14:16-24
The Lord said this parable: "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'"
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
both now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen.
The excuses are seen by the Church Fathers as having both literal and spiritual meanings. The literal dimension indicates that temporal worldly cares are more important to many people than the eternal Kingdom of God. St. Ambrose sees the excuse of the five yokes of oxen is the Jews' enslavement to the five books of the Law. While St. Theophylact sees it with the wife’s excuse as things pertaining to the five senses and all pleasures of the flesh.
The servant who was sent to gather many is Christ. In His first coming He invited the Jews, and they declined, so He invited all of mankind. Supper indicates evening, the end of the age.
This Gospel serves as a warning to us. As these people are the faithless Jews who rejected Christ, or those outside the Church replacing those within who have rejected their own baptism. Orthodoxy is not inherited, nor it is a lifetime guarantee of salvation. If you do not come to the feast, you lose your invitation. The Gospel today wants to wake us up from our deep sleep in earthly matters. As St. Paul today emphasizes in his epistle to the Ephesians: “Therefore it is said, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light."
It also has a strong and positive message. You are invited to a feast of Joy, a feast where all those who were treated unjustly would rejoice. If you were lame in people’s eyes, you are whole in the Kings’ eyes. You are more deserving than what people believe or think, you are more valuable. If people think that you are blind, You are the only one who is worthy to see the glory of the King of Kings. So Let’s listen to St. Paul’s epistle today and let’s Look carefully how we walk, as wise men, making the most of the time in the light of Christ. As he told us, Walk in the light of the day! So we may be counted worthy for the invitation from our King and our God.
May the Lord our God give us the ability always to reply to the invitation with the Theotokos’ words: I am the Lord’s handmaiden, let it be according to your word. Amen
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