Meals and Honor!

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Phil 2: 5-11; Lk 14: 15-24

Today’s Gospel highlights the honor attached to the invitation, the responsibility of those who receive it, and the consequences of failing to honor it.

The Parable of the Great Banquet seems like a story about food. However, on closer reading, we understand that Jesus is not talking about food alone. Instead, he builds the story to highlight bonding, belonging, and honor. 

Firstly, we may reflect on the element of honor attached to the invitation. The master’s invitation reveals that he held his invitees in high esteem. As the host, he puts his invitees first. That is why he dispatches his servant to remind the invitees of the banquet. Thus, by inviting them, he lets his invitees know how privileged they are. But when the master considered his invitees important, they treated his invitation as unimportant. Thus, in rejecting the invitation, they show disrespect and dishonor.

Secondly, the invitation carries a responsibility. The reasons they give are superficial and flimsy because, for instance, nobody buys land without examining it first. Here, we must note that the invitees do not openly reject the invitation or insult the master. Instead, they make the land, oxen, or marriage more important than the master or his invitation. By treating other things as having extraordinary value, they relegate the master and his invitation to a secondary place and treat them as ordinary.

Thirdly, rejecting the invitation carries its own consequences. The master’s tone changes radically when he learns from his servant that those invited have declined. Since the invited have become unworthy, the master now turns to the streets and alleys. When they are not enough, he wants his servant to collect people from highways and hedgerows. The master shows what happens when his invitation is rejected. When the invited fail to respond, the uninvited become important. When those considered worthy become unworthy, those never considered become the center of attention. Thus, those who never made it to the list previously – the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame – now enjoy honor and respect. 

The parable helps us realize the importance of the invitation we have received and the duty to honor it. When we become ungrateful for and unworthy of God’s invitation, we must remember that God can always find people, even from streets and alleys, from highways and hedgerows.

Let us pray that we may always behave as God’s privileged guests of honor. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar