Luke 14:1,7-11 NRSVue

¹On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.

⁷When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. ⁸“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, ⁹and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. ¹¹For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

“Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.”

Reflection on Luke 14:1,7-11

Inspiration from 2023-11-04 Daily Prayer

We are often surprised and even shocked at the lengths people go to in order to be honoured. In our efforts to be acknowledged, we can end up humiliating ourselves. It is a powerful force deep within us, and we need God’s help to be free of our need to flaunt our own importance before others.

St Ignatius suggests we ask insistently for the grace to be able to make the same choices Jesus made: to ask to be like him in refusing honours, and to choose to be humble and even humiliated as he was. I ask for the freedom to accept humiliations calmly and gracefully when they come.