The Gospel of Luke 14:7-24 gives us a glimpse on how it will be for us when we are already there in the Kingdom of God. And its core message is “For every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
The gospel also reminds us that in every good deed we have done here on earth, there is a reward waiting for us in heaven. That is why, in verse 12 following it says: “Then he said to the host who invited him, ‘When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’”
There we have the keyword — righteous. God simply wants us to be righteous in order to be with Him in heaven. It is clear that righteousness and not self -righteousness is required from us to enjoy the Kingdom of God.
What example did Luke give and emphasize — invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind — in other words be good to those people who have the inability to repay us with money, with wealth.
Luke wants to make it clear for us that Jesus wants us to deal with people with mercy, love, and compassion.
And serve God, our country and people with all humility. The problem in our society today, and more so even within the Roman Catholic Church, is that many people are confused with what is true humility and false humility.
True humility goes hand in hand with honesty and truthfulness, while the opposite is of course false humility. Just like for some, they thought that not saying or making any negative comments that could hurt a person is humility. Definitely it is not, because there is no truthfulness and honesty there.
We can see that the message of today’s gospel is just a continuity of the gospel last Sunday, 21 August 2022, wherein there is an emphasis in considering those people who are being neglected by society the lost, the last and the least. God is telling us that these people are special to Him, these people are the “treasures of the Kingdom.”
Again, the gospel reminds all of us that to find favor with God and to surely enter His Kingdom we need to be righteous, holy, blameless in His eyes. That we live a simple life of humility and truthfulness.
By being truthful, we definitely earn a good reputation for truthfulness and honesty. Honesty develops the trust and confidence we need to have that good relationship with other people. I know you will agree with me that trust is necessary for a relationship to function and thrive. When we are honest with people, it tells them that they can trust us.
We will all have a place in the Kingdom, but that would depend on how we treat people whether they are our brothers and sisters, neighbors or strangers. God, through Jesus Christ, is offering us salvation.