Luke 14:1, 7-14, 22nd Sunday In Ordinary Time

Imagine, sisters and brothers, a papal mass where, in the 10 rows nearest the altar, sit the leading, most influential cardinals from all over the world. After the sign of the cross, the first thing the pope says is: “May I respectfully ask all the cardinals and bishops to please rise. Please vacate your seats right now. All those sitting in the last 10 rows, yes, you who are way out in the back of this church, please, please, come over and take the seats of their eminences, their excellencies.” And the pope motions the priests to the back of the church. Imagine a SONA, where the highest ranking politicians, the so-called honorables, are already in their permanent seats in the house. The first thing the president says: “I have invited 500 sidewalk vendors to a front-row experience of the SONA this year. They’re all waiting to enter right now. So, my dear congressmen, senators, cabinet appointees, governors, mayors, generals, please rise and proceed to the lobby. There are mono-block chairs for you there. You can watch the SONA through the television monitors. Please vacate your seats and give my sidewalk vendor guests the seats of honor.” Imagine a university graduation. When the valedictorian walks up to the lectern and starts the speech this way: “Bago po ako magsimula, tinatawagan ko po ang lahat ng ating mga kuya at ate na janitors, custodians,messengers, mga kuya at ate na nagtitinda sa canteen, at mga security guards na narito ngayon. Akyat po kayo rito sa stage. Tabihan n’yo po ako. My dear university president, dean, guest speaker, I hope you don’t mind po. Sisikip po ang stage ng ilang minuto lang naman.”

The privileged and the powerful are not used to being treated this way. And by the speed or the sluggishness they give their seats away, we’d be able to tell the arrogant and the entitled from the humble and the grateful. I imagine a few would jump up and surrender their seats to the nameless and untitled. The majority, I imagine, would be shocked. They wouldn’t know what hit them. Prank ba ito? And realizing it isn’t, they slowly and grudgingly oblige. But the hopeless “honorables,” I imagine, won’t even budge.

The message of our Gospel today is as simple as it is complicated. Everything good in our lives, dear sisters and brothers, is bestowed. There’s very little reason, if at all, to believe that God owed us these gifts. “After all, I worked for these, I earned them, so I deserve them.” Whether in church, government, schools, etc, the places of honor reserved for us do not necessarily mean we’re the holiest, smartest, wisest people in the bunch. In fact, quite the opposite happens. Many people in seats of honor these days (like the contractors and politicians rolling in your money) are the worst self-enriching thieves. If we happen to be in a place of honor, whether priest, politician, educator, etc, this only means we have a mission from God. Mission has always meant serving the greater and the more important than self and ego. Mission has always meant walking to the back of the church, getting out to the streets, drawing close to those who’d rather not be up on stage—and make them matter, make them feel seen, make them feel cared for and fought for. Our seats of honor were bestowed on us, sisters and brothers. But they’re kept shiny and clean by people who are scared to even scratch them, people who are the real honorables in the eyes of the Lord.

Forgive me for my jadedness, but I have very serious doubts, dear sisters and brothers, if our country’s biggest systematic thieves will ever be prosecuted. I’m almost sure they won’t spend a day behind bars. When did that ever happen? Sure, they will fall from grace. Sure, they’ll be shamed, bashed, insulted. The contractors may lose a few clients. The politicians may lose elections. But because punishment in this country is too often only leveled on the poor, the wealthy thieves will still get to drive their smuggled cars, eat like royalty, shop & travel in style, and luxuriate in their many mansions. Do you actually think any of them will return ill-gotten wealth? Maybe not in this country. Maybe not in my lifetime.

But there is definitely a next life where the final and true accounting will be inevitable. From Jesus’ many parables and scenarios like today’s, a reversal of fortune is up in the next life. In fact, it looks like a banquet over there where the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind are in seats of honor. And because all will be right and just, I guess, no place for remorseless rich thieves there, for cheaters or opportunists, even if they happened to use God’s name here on earth to justify what they do and console themselves.

So, we continue to pray for our country, dear sisters and brothers. May we live to see the honest and the true rightly and justly take the seats of honor in our churches, government, schools, and institutions. And for the wealthy thieves and their enablers, may they be taught a hard lesson they will never forget.