For the
gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29
“Rather, when you are invited, go and
take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My
friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your
companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but
the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke
14:10-11
Piety
O
my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins,
because of Your just punishments, but most of all because they offend You, my
God, who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the
help of Your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.
Study
Israel
long held the honored place at the banquet of the Lord. However, they were not
living up to that privilege. Therefore,
the notes from the New American Bible tell us, “In God’s design, Israel’s
unbelief is being used to grant the light of faith to the Gentiles. Meanwhile,
Israel remains dear to God, still the object of special providence, the mystery
of which will one day be revealed.”[i]
Even
though they went to a lower position, they remained favored by God. “Although Israel has been unfaithful to the
prophetic message of the gospel, God remains faithful to Israel. Proof of the
divine fidelity lies in the existence of Jewish Christians like Paul himself.
The unbelieving Jews, says Paul, have been blinded by the Christian teaching
concerning the Messiah.”[ii]
Faith
is what determines the place we have at the banquet of the Lord. Despite whatever our actions might be that
betray that faith or take it for granted, the Lord never turns away from us. The greater our faith, the easier it might be
to take the humble position at the foot of the table. For the gifts and the call of God are
irrevocable no matter where we are seated.
Action
In
the recent Synod of the Family, there was a lot of media attention paid to
discussions of divorced and remarried Catholics – specifically, would there be
a path for them to return to Communion. The
participants wrestled with ways to achieve fuller participation of the divorced
and remarried in Catholic life.
According
to Christine Shenk writing in the National Catholic Reporter, “Of course, Pope
Francis has the final word, but as anyone who has been paying attention
realizes, his heart is set on the mercy of God rather than judgment.”[iii]
In
his concluding synod speech, Pope Francis had harsh words for those
"letter-of-the-law" types who "frequently hide even behind the
Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses
and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and
wounded families." Rather, said Pope Francis, true defenders of church
doctrine, "are not those who uphold its letter, but its spirit; not ideas
but people; not formulae but the gratuitousness of God’s love and forgiveness."[iv]
Pope
Francis went on to say that the Synod “was about making clear that the Church
is a Church of the poor in spirit and of sinners seeking forgiveness, not
simply of the righteous and the holy, but rather of those who are righteous and
holy precisely when they feel themselves poor sinners.”
Divorced
and remarried Catholics have been seated at the “lowest place” for years. Maybe the comments of Pope Francis will give
them hope of being asked to move up to the table “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” even if divorced
or remarried.
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