Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s first reading comes from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and it pertains to every parish community. In the passage, Paul reminds the Romans that we all have “gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” This means that we should expect God’s grace to be manifest in various ways. Any community that imagines that grace looks the same for every person seems to be gravely mistaken, according to Paul. This is at once freeing and challenging. It is freeing because it allows each of us to discern God’s work in us in light of our individual gifts, talents and desires. It is challenging because it implies that the Church thrives when people are engaged in such discernment and self-giving.
While it may seem simple to affirm the diversity of our community, it is not always so simple for each one of us to ask ourselves if we are truly open to do what God may be calling us to do. For some, this might be about becoming more involved in concrete ways in the parish. For others of us, it might really be a less definable change in ourselves, wherein we turn even more toward God and allow ourselves to be surprised by grace in and around us.
Perhaps the obstacles that preclude an openness to surprise are precisely why today’s Gospel is put with Paul’s letter. In the parable, Jesus tells us about a man who threw a big party…that no one had time to attend. The man rather desperately dispatches his servants once again--“into the streets and alleys of the town--to find anyone who might fill the seats. Seeing that there is still room, the servants go out a third time, even farther, to find people who might enjoy the feast.
The Kingdom of God, Jesus seems to be saying, is a place of abundance and gift, but we’re always trying to find excuses not to join it. In addition, the Kingdom of God is open to even the most marginalized, another moment for surprise, should we be open enough to receive it. Throughout Luke’s gospel, the rich and powerful struggle for a place in the Kingdom of God while Christ holds up the poor and the lowly as its most natural residents. Seen together, St. Paul’s message and Jesus’ parable are a helpful reminder about the Kingdom toward which we are called to work, using our many different talents in the service of others.
- Katherine Schmidt