Thoughts for September 2, 2007

Today’s Gospel has some familiar lines. Jesus suggests that, when we are invited to a banquet, we take the lowest seat. It would be better to take a lower seat and be invited higher than to take the higher seat and have to move down.
I’m indebted to John Shea’s commentary on the Sunday readings (The Restless Widow: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers, Liturgical Press, pp. 245-251) for some of these observations on what might happen.
You could take the lowest seat and your host could come by and whisper in your ear that he/she is happy to see that you know your place! Shea’s comment is that “Nothing awakens self-knowledge so painfully as a failed strategy.”
You could take the lowest seat and get to like the people there and prefer it to a higher seat. You would have a whole set of new friends. When the host invites you to come up higher, you might decline the invitation because you prefer to stay where you are. You’re having too good a time!
Whatever the outcome, the invitation of Jesus in today’s Gospel is to look at ourselves with a long, loving, compassionate look that also has a sense of humor in it. If we look closely at ourselves in different situations, we will notice some tendencies to jockey for social position, for recognition, for honor or to be noticed and approved of. What do we do when these tendencies pop up. I’ll share what I’ve learned to do. I see them and say, “Here you are again! Big Surprise!” Then I smile and say, “Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.”
Dag Hammerskold once wrote, “A grace to pray for -- that our self-interest, which is inescapable, may never cripple our sense of humor, that fully conscious self-scrutiny which alone can save us.” Good advice!