3 November 2025 – Monday of the 31st week, year ‘C’
Romans 11:29-36; Luke 14:12-14
Homily
The entire chapter 14 of Luke consists of what could be called Jesus' ‘table talks’. These ‘table talks,’ even though Luke is the only evangelist to report them, were a popular literary genre commonly used at the time.
Jesus is invited to a banquet; and, like all the other guests, he speaks when his turn comes, offering some reflections and teachings, which we already read on the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The first part of this teaching is about humility; then comes a second lesson, which is the one we have in today's Gospel, and which is a lesson that Jesus gave to his host for the day. According to this teaching, the people we want to invite to our table, whom we want to help and serve, should not only be interesting and pleasant people, with whom it is good to be, or those who can help us in difficult times, facilitate our access to a job or a good contract, help us avoid paying a fine or quickly get us an appointment with a specialist. No! We must first help and serve the most needy, the poor, the wounded – of all kinds of wounds – the blind, etc. It is these people who will welcome us into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Saint Benedict, who wrote a Rule of Life for monks in the sixth century—a Rule that remains to this day the foundation of all monastic life in the West—understood this Gospel very well. At the beginning of his Rule, in the section on spiritual values, even before entering into a detailed description of community life, he offers us a very long chapter on the twelve degrees of humility. The only greatness is that which is freely given by God to the person with a humble and pure heart, and not that which a person can attain through their own efforts and personal ambition. Further on, in the chapter on hospitality, Benedict recommends receiving the poor and needy, as well as the rich and powerful, like Christ himself, without partiality.
Let us ask God for this wisdom, which may seem foolish in the eyes of men, but which is the very wisdom of God.
Armand Veilleux