Today’s homily was (for me) relatively short, so, rather than posting the transcript here (the automated version of which is already readily available), I want instead to add an addendum: “the sermon after the sermon,” as I like to call it.

In both this parable and in our Lord’s rejoinder immediately preceding it, those to be invited to the feast are “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” and even random strangers who happen to be passing by who are compelled to come in. We can and should understand this initially in its literal sense: when we give a banquet we should invite those in need, who cannot possibly repay us. But we can also see in this—especially those of us who are converts to the faith—ourselves: those who were poor in spirit, helpless, unaware of the true nature of reality, who have been compelled to come in by the grace of God at work in our lives and have found ourselves the recipients of a heavenly banquet we did not anticipate receiving. Now joyful, illumined, and satiated, our response should be one of deep gratitude and adoration and praise towards our unexpected benefactor, along with a desire to complete what is, in the parable, the unfinished work of filling the banquet hall with other beneficiaries who may well be as unaware of their spiritual needs as we were.

Our motive and our modus operandi should not be to “compel them to come in” in any physically coercive sense, but rather to so reveal the splendour of what they are missing out on that they can’t help but be as moved by the invitation and the experience as we have been. Because the benefit of being illumined, of being healed by the joy of the heavenly banquet is simply something too good to keep to ourselves!

Scripture Readings Referenced:

* Luke 13:22-17:10 , with a focus on today’s reading, Luke 14:16-24

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