Wisdom to be learned

Here is the text of the homily I shared with the community gathered in prayer for the Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Come to the banquet

During the upcoming week, students in our elementary and secondary schools will begin another academic year.  At this point of new beginning, the scripture passages we have heard today remind us that all of us, regardless of our age, are students: all of us can learn something every day of our lives.  You see, learning starts with facts and figures: we call this first stage the acquisition of knowledge, but the second stage of learning comes when we discover the wisdom of knowing how to use that which we have learned.  There are many teachers who can teach lessons of the first kind, but far fewer teachers who are capable of seizing the hearts of their students and inspiring them to be all that they can be. Yet, these are the ones who students will always remember, who they will truly admire, even if may not understand or appreciate the wisdom being imparted at the time.

Jesus was one such teacher.  He knew how to use every situation as an opportunity to teach: sometimes with words, but more often through example.  When one of the leaders of the Pharisees invited him to dine at his house, Jesus knew that the other guests would be watching him, ready to judge him if he should say or do something that wasn’t quite right.  Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you weren’t quite sure about the appropriate protocol to be followed?  It can be an uncomfortable and awkward situation.  In times such as those, the best practice is often to remember that we all have two eyes, two ears, and only one mouth.

Jesus watched the other guests as they gathered for the meal.  He paid attention to the way they would have jostled for the places closest to the host, for the positions which would get them noticed.  Presumably, someone had invited him to speak, and this opened the door for him to share his wisdom.  How many times in our lives do we expend great energy trying to get noticed?  At some level, we all seek the approval of our parents, our teachers, and our peers.  When we have it, there is a sense of pride; the longer we don’t (or don’t think we do), the harder we’ll try.

The lesson that Jesus was teaching that day was that true strength of character is revealed when we are humble enough to own and admit our own poverty, our own weakness.  Only then do we come to understand and to appreciate the immeasurable goodness, kindness and love of God.  Only then do we begin to grasp the depth of the treasure that is offered to us, a treasure which is offered to all those who are part of this family of faith. None of us is worthy of the places of honour, not on our own merits, but all of us are invited to sit at this table.  All of us are invited to partake in the banquet because all of us are deeply loved by the one Jesus called Abba – Father, daddy.

As we come to understand the power of this love, we begin to grow more and more able to recognize our own poverty, to embrace it not as an impediment which might impede us from being recognized, but rather as an invitation to come closer to the one who already knows us, cherishes us and loves us even more than we can possibly imagine.

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews seems to have understood this truth very well.  He tells us that here in this place we have already arrived in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  Our God has invited us to partake in this banquet in company with an immeasurable number of angels who have  also gathered for this feast, and with the assembly of the firstborn who are already enrolled in heaven.  If only we could grasp just a bit of this understanding, perhaps we might truly begin to appreciate how much we are loved, how much our God rejoices over us, how deeply he believes in us … and if only we could come to believe this truth, perhaps we too could go out to all the nations, teach them by our example and by our words, inspire them by our kindness, our gentleness, our compassion, and invite them to come to believe the good news.