Life is a Banquet!

A Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Life is a banquet! But most poor suckers are starving to death!” If you know your Broadway or Film history you will recognize that tag line as the motto of Mame Dennis, otherwise known as “Aunti Mame.” And there is some truth in that slogan, even if it might still be a bit too much about conspicuous consumption and an obsessive, even addictive, drive to collect experiences.

For us Christians, especially, as we see in today’s gospel parable, “Life is a Banquet” but it is a banquet that really has nothing to do with the measures of quantity or quality, but rather everything to do with immeasurable quiddity. Jesus tells us directly in John’s gospel that he has come to bring us life and life abundant. That’s a promise to all human beings no matter the quantity of our material goods and experiences or the quality of our health and well-being. “Life Abundant” gets to our Christian Quiddity… that is, the very essence of who we are and who we are called to be in every and any circumstance.

Of course much of the language in our scriptures today seems desperately focused on both quantity and quality. It’s “juicy, rich food and pure choice wine,” in Isaiah not Big Macs and Manischewitz! And Paul speaks of learning to live “in abundance and in need.” It all seems to be about the quality of what you have and how much you have. Just consider the poor chap who showed up at the banquet without the “right clothes!” But, if we are paying attention, it is exactly that poor chap by whom Jesus wants to open our eyes to our quiddity, our essence, which has nothing to do with quantities or qualities.

The educator and spiritual writer, Parker Palmer, reminds us that “At every level of our lives the assumption of scarcity, not abundance, threatens to deform our attitudes and our actions.” In God there is no abundance or scarcity there is only abundance! Abundance is essence, not attribute. That is, Abundance just IS and it cannot be measured. Yes, we human beings know both abundance and need, as Paul states, but we forget, in God, no matter our circumstances, we are always in abundance.

So now let’s go back to the poorly clad person who was compelled into the banquet hall. Jesus says: “Many are invited, but few are chosen.” So what’s at the heart of that distinction? What might it mean to “show up in the right clothes?” Well, let’s look back at the total parable. The invitation goes out, but people decline… one goes off to his farm another to his business. The king seems confused: “I don’t get it! I put together this massive feast and all I wanted was people to come freely and enjoy it without cost, but they decline my offer.” So he opens the doors to everyone and doesn’t just invite, he compels and the banquet hall is filled. You would think the king would be happy and he is until he spies the one person not in a wedding garment. He is invited, but he has somehow failed to recognize that he is chosen. And this is not based on some external measure of quantity or quality but rather because he failed to understand his own abundant nature!

He recognized his invitation but failed to realized his “chosenness.” We are all “wedding garment people” but for some reason we insist on wearing funeral garb! So we need to remember being Chosen, as in “the chosen people,” has never had anything to do with “being special” or “being better than…” but it has always had everything to do with being a blessing for others… no matter the circumstances of our lives. It’s hard to be a blessing to others if the lens by which you see the world is one of scarcity; one measured by quantity or quality. To be invited is a given, but we have to believe in our chosenness. We have to break free of our human need to see by measure and live into the reality that in God to be a Blessing is our Quiddity. It’s who we are and who we are to be for others no matter our wealth, health, intellectual prowess, mass of experiences or accolades we’ve garnered. Blessing is the Essence of the Human Person. Blessing isn’t what we do, or how we do it, it’s who we are.

It doesn’t take an in-depth social analysis to recognize that we are living in a time ruled by an upsurge in, what I call, the insatiable self-righteous hatred of the utterly aggrieved. And the only thing that can counter that dangerous collective, self-justified hate, is our own renewed commitment to be a blessing for everyone! Not just my people, my tribe, those who think, look, and pray and believe as I do.

Life is a Banquet! But most people are starving to death… that is, until we ourselves learn to move from living as invited guests in this world to living as chosen daughters and sons; children who know very well the abundant blessing of our extravagantly reckless God so that we ourselves cannot help but to BE that kind of Blessing in the world.