Accepting an Invitation

Homily for Tuesday of the Thirty-First Week In Ordinary Time

St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians has been called St. Paul’s “Letter of Joy.” Philippi was a village in Macedonia named for the father of Alexander the Great, Philip II. This beautiful letter is rich in insights into Paul’s theology and his apostolic love and concern for the Gospel and his converts. In Philippians, Paul reveals his human sensitivity and tenderness, his enthusiasm for Christ as the key to life and death, and his deep feeling for those in Christ who dwell in Philippi. With them he shares his hopes and convictions, his anxieties and fears, revealing the total confidence in Christ that constitutes faith him.

The excerpt that we read today is a hymn or song. St. Paul incorporated this hymn because it reveals the salvation that God has brought about through Christ. This hymn rejoices about the faith of the Philippians and their understanding of Christ’s unique role in the salvation of all who profess his Lordship. It speaks of how Christ has emptied himself of what most people would consider unthinkable, his power as God.

Placed as it is in the Lectionary for Daily Mass opposite the Gospel story of a great banquet to which a man has invited his friends, it offers us the opportunity to reflect on what is important in our lives. When the time of the banquet arrives, three of the invitees express that they are not able to attend because of a so-called emergency. However, the emergency is more about self- interest or self-concern. As is often the case in our own lives, the dominant influence that guides our behavior is our sense of what is best for us rather than a commitment to our host. The passage that we read yesterday from Philippians speaks of looking to others interests rather than our own. We are asked to put on an attitude that is found in the life of Jesus who thinks of others first and himself last. Jesus becomes, consequently, the ultimate model of one who empties oneself for others.

It was this attitude that occasioned the gift that Jesus left behind in the Eucharist. We receive the body and blood of Jesus, his humanity and his divinity, when we participate at this altar. Jesus gives us his everything, his very life, which will lead those who put their faith in Jesus to the heavenly banquet which is foreshadowed in today’s Gospel text. Like the man in the Gospel, Jesus is inviting us to find a place of refreshment and life. It would be unthinkable to ignore such an invitation, yet many do just that.