His Invitation
Gospel Reflection for Tuesday, Nov. 4th, 2025 - Luke 14:15-24
Today’s Gospel is Jesus describing a feast, a rich dinner with all the trimmings and trappings. The guest list is set or so it seems. The man sends out his servant to invite the guests he intends to host, who they are we are not sure, yet immediately we begin to see excuses. Fields must be examined, oxen attended to, and even a new wife. All reasons given for not attending this dinner prepared especially for them.
The man responds quickly and decisively, sending out his servant once more. This time, inviting the crippled, the lame, the blind, and the poor. When it becomes apparent that there is still more room at this dinner table, more are invited in, from the roadways, and hedgerows, perhaps travelers.
What can we make of this scene? The obvious answer is that the man is doing what Jesus mentioned in the gospel yesterday, inviting the poor and the lame. Still, as I read over today’s Gospel I was struck by something else.
How many times has the Lord invited me to His dinner table? How did I choose to respond to that invitation? When I was newly Catholic I couldn’t get enough of the Mass, the Eucharist, and the beauty of His church. It satiated all my heart’s desires. I was poor in my understanding of faith, and starving for the Truth that the Catholic Faith provides. I was a traveler wandering and looking for a place to stop and be fed. My gratitude at being in the Mass, and seeing the dots connect between the Bible and what was happening before my very eyes was incredible. I felt blessed and still do.
As time has gone on, and children, sickness, work, moving, and life has happened, excuses have also crept in. Yes, most Sunday’s I still feel that incredible awe, marveling at being present for such a feast, to be invited despite who I am and what I have done. That awe never leaves, but I am also human. I have made excuses, and at times rejected the Lord’s invitation. I have chosen other people and things over Him. My nature sometimes gets the better of me, I choose poorly, and then I go to reconciliation to set my relationship with Him right once more.
Still the Lord invites me, and you, to His dinner table. Every day. In the daily Mass and every Sunday, He extends Himself to as many as He can and yet there is still room for more.
Perhaps you too have rejected the Lord’s invitation, or maybe you have felt too blind, poor, crippled, lame, too other, to be included in the Lord’s affairs, to have a seat at His table.
Friends, today’s Gospel is clear that the Lord invites all to His dinner feast, and if we accept His invitation, there will be room and room abundantly for all.
One of those at table with Jesus said to him,
“Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.”
He replied to him,
“A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,
he dispatched his servant to say to those invited,
‘Come, everything is now ready.’
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,
‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;
I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have just married a woman,
and therefore I cannot come.’
The servant went and reported this to his master.
Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant,
‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out
and still there is room.’
The master then ordered the servant,
‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows
and make people come in that my home may be filled.
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
Lovely reflection Mandy!