The parable of the great banquet

Fr Paul reads today from the Gospel of Luke (14: 15-24) in which Jesus tells a parable about a man inviting guests to a banquet he has prepared.

Today, Fr Paul says, we hear a third parable about a banquet or dinner party.  We need to understand, and as we will discover this week, Luke likes the number three.

Three people are asked to come to this banquet.  They are good people and, yet, they have their faults. In each case, we hear an excuse as to why they are unable to come.

The host of this dinner party, this banquet, offers salvation firstly to those in the city. We hear the servant being commanded to go out to those in the city; then to those who are crippled, lame or blind; but there is still room for more, so the servant is sent outside the city to the open roads.

The point of this parable is that the host of this banquet is offering salvation to all, not just to the chosen ones in the city, but to everyone: those within the city and those outside the city.

For our reflection today, Fr Paul says, each and every day we are offered a place at the banquet we call the Eucharist so we might ask ourselves ‘How often do I use a feeble excuse to avoid spending time with God?’

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If you are having a flutter on the Melbourne Cup, but aren’t sure who to back, stay listening right till the end as Fr Paul shares his tips.