St. Luke is the only evangelist to record the meal in today’s Gospel passage for this 16th Sunday after Pentecost. This particular meal is the third time in Luke’s Gospel the Lord had dined with Pharisees. The first time he pardoned the servant woman condemned by the Pharisees for washing the Lord’s feet. The second time the Pharisees condemn him for not washing his own hands as was the custom. And this third time he dines in what we’re told is the house of a leading Pharisee. He is condemned again, this time for healing on the Sabbath.
This is the fifth time in Luke’s Gospel the Lord has healed on the sabbath. So it’s not a total surprise when he is condemned for this behavior. But it is the first time where he combines sabbath healing and a meal. Healing and food, the Lord’s two favorite things in Luke’s Gospel.
I don’t know about you, but this certainly makes me think of what we’re doing right now. In the celebration of Mass, the Lord feeds us and there is a healing that occurs here. Those who suffer from the woundedness of sin, receive healing in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Holy Father Pope Francis, said a few years ago, that the Eucharist is “powerful medicine for the weak”, echoing a sentiment found throughout the church fathers, notably, St. Ignatius of Antioch, who called the Eucharist the “medicine of immortality…and the antidote which wards off death” and “yields continuous life in union with Jesus Christ ” in his letter to the Christians of Ephesus.
Each one of us are in need of the medicine of the Eucharist. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will live forever. We all need the Eucharist for the eternal life the Lord desires for us. But also as a remedy for the vices and sins which would keep us from blessedness. When we receive the Eucharist in a state of grace, we receive tremendous strength for resisting temptation.
But it is important for us to come to the table, so to speak, desiring that healing, humbly acknowledging our need for this healing.
It’s not a coincidence that this parable about healing at a sabbath meal is about humility. The Lord invites us to acknowledge our woundedness, where we are in need of healing, and invite His grace into those wounds to restore us by His strength.
Some people have misinterpreted the words of Pope Francis calling the Eucharist powerful medicine for the weak to mean that those in a state of mortal sin can receive communion. That obviously cannot be a valid interpretation of his words, as it violates canon law, 2000 years of tradition, and scripture, which states “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord”
Rather, we know come to the table humbly, having confessed our sins, open to the graces God gives to the sinner who humbles himself, as he says in the Gospel today, that in the words of Paul in our epistle: “that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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A reading from the epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians
Brethren: I ask you not to lose heart over my afflictions for you; this is your glory. For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
A continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
At that time, when Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, they were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy. Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?” But they kept silent; so he took the man and, after he had healed him, dismissed him. Then he said to them, “Who among you, if your son or ox* falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?” But they were unable to answer his question.
He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’ Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Then he said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
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