Christ always and everywhere the teacher

22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C

Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29
Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11
Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a
Luke 14:1, 7-14

Today’s gospel provides us with a window through which we can take a peek at the society of Jesus’ times. At first glance, it may seem that Jesus is teaching good etiquette and table manners, or perhaps giving some advice to avoid being overly embarrassed in a social situation. To think of Jesus in this way, in my opinion, diminishes His person. Let us see.

We are aware that a human being is social by nature. We are conceived through the conjoint effort of two people and God (Who creates the soul), we grow by building up relationships and widening our circle of contacts we develop through these interactions and so on.

To be honest, our knowledge of the social customs in Jesus’ time and place is very limited. Still, today’s gospel presents quite a unique situation to us. It is not clear if Jesus was invited to dine because He was a sort of celebrity at the time or if the invitation was just part of a customary event. It seems that Jewish people used to end their Sabbath celebration with a good meal (like many Catholic families do for Sunday dinner, thus expanding the celebration). The Pharisees would have been particularly prone to do it.

In fact, author Elias Bickerman explains very well in his book From Ezra to the Last of the Maccabees: Foundations of Post-Biblical Judaism, the influence of Hellenism in the development of Jewish society in Palestine through the third, second and first centuries before Christ. One of the typical activities in Hellenistic society was a formal gathering known as a symposium (which means in Greek “drinking together”) that was usually done alongside some sort of lecture or discussion (rules for how they did it are well known). Considering the importance given by the Pharisees to the study of the law (equivalent to literary education in Hellenistic circles), such an activity would have been quite appealing.

From another perspective, it is also very meaningful that the Gospel of Luke presents Jesus sharing a table with other people with higher frequency than in the other gospels. Catholic writer Eugene LaVerdiere has especially studied this aspect of the gospel, arriving at the conclusion that the ultimate reason for those moments in Jesus’ ministry is found in the institution of the Eucharist. So, in this case, the Pharisees’ practice was very fitting for Jesus’ purposes.

In any case, the Savior did not miss an opportunity to provide a meaningful teaching to His commensals. The first reading shows that, in reality, Jesus is not teaching something entirely new but is reminding people of important lessons that were already part of Jewish tradition. (It is considered that the book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus was written around the year 190 B.C.)

We know that conventions constitute the scaffolding of society. We always expect people to behave in a certain way and, if they do not do it, we are surprised, maybe even shocked or scandalized. Without conventions, society breaks down, becomes tribal and eventually falls apart. From the perspective of conventions, Jesus’ teaching is very radical. It begs the question if Jesus truly intended for people to behave in the way He teaches in today’s gospel or if He is trying to instill a disposition of the heart in His audience. In other words, we may ask how practicable Jesus’ teaching is.

But even granting that it may not be so easy to do (again, because of societal conventions or other limitations), it still remains the truth of Jesus’ teaching in its essence, which is no other than the consideration we should have of every single person and our own personal role in society in light of our neighbors’ situations. The closing sentence of the gospel reminds us of what has to be our final goal in everything we undertake. The second reading reminds us of this same reality with a beautiful description: “You have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.” Therefore, let us behave accordingly.

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