November 3, 2026
Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 486
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
Have among yourselves the same attitude
that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and, found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 22:26b-27,
28-30ab, 30e, 31-32
R. (26a) I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your
people.
I will fulfill my vows before those who fear him.
The lowly shall eat their fill;
they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
“May your hearts be ever merry!”
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
All the ends of the earth
shall remember and turn to the LORD;
All the families of the nations
shall bow down before him.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
For dominion is the LORD’s,
and he rules the nations.
To him alone shall bow down
all who sleep in the earth.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
To him my soul shall live;
my descendants shall serve him.
Let the coming generation be told of the LORD
that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
the justice he has shown.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
One of those at table with Jesus said to him,
“Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.”
He replied to him,
“A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,
he dispatched his servant to say to those invited,
‘Come, everything is now ready.’
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,
‘I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;
I ask you, consider me excused.’
And another said, ‘I have just married a woman,
and therefore I cannot come.’
The servant went and reported this to his master.
Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant,
‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out
and still there is room.’
The master then ordered the servant,
‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows
and make people come in that my home may be filled.
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110326.cfm
Commentary on
Philippians 2:5-11
Yesterday we saw Paul urging the Philippians to greater
unity and he gave them some motivating reasons to help bring it about.
Today he gives what is the strongest motivation of all—the example shown by
Jesus.
Paul begins by asking that the Philippians make their own,
or assimilate into the very core of their being, the thinking patterns of Jesus
himself:
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…
Paul then goes on to explain this pattern of thinking.
It is a call, not just to model oneself on the moral behaviour of the
historical Jesus, but on the entire Christ event as is depicted in the beautiful
hymn that follows. The same relationships should exist among the
Philippians as they have with Jesus Christ—that is, they are to love and serve
each other as they love and serve Christ. There can be no separation of
these two realities.
This comes in the form of a hymn. It is not certain
whether this was an already existing hymn which Paul borrowed or whether he
composed it partially or in full himself. It clearly expresses exactly
what Paul wants to say.
The hymn is in a number of parts, each one highlighting a
stage in the ‘mystery’ that is Christ for us:
- divine
pre-existence
- the kenosis
or self-emptying of the incarnation
- further
kenosis in death
- glorification
in resurrection and ascension
- adoration
by the whole universe or cosmos
- the
new title of ‘Lord’
As stated in the Jerusalem Bible:
“This hymn is concerned solely with the historical Christ in
whose personality godhead and manhood are not divided; Paul nowhere divorces
the humanity and divinity of Jesus, though he does distinguish his various
stages of existence.”
Next Paul affirms that Christ had all the attributes of God
himself and is fully God, who always was and always will be:
Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God…
Yet Jesus did not cling—hold on tenaciously—to that “equality
with God” with all its status and privileges. This does not mean that he
renounced in any way his divine nature; that would be impossible. But in
contrast to Adam who was seduced into wanting to be ‘like God’, Jesus let go of
all the honours and reverence that were his inherent right. Instead, he:
…emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
He took on the the human condition which we all share.
He became a slave (Greek, doulos) although he was Lord (Greek, kyrios).
There is probably a reference here to the Suffering Servant we read of in
Isaiah (52:13—53:12), parts of which we read during the Good Friday liturgy.
Above all, Jesus lived in total submission to his Father,
saying during his agony in the garden:
…yet not my will but yours be done.
In the words of John’s Gospel, “Jesus hid himself” (John
8:59). He hid his true Self by assuming human nature and:
…has been tested as we are, yet [is] without sin.
(Heb 4:15)
Or, as the hymn today puts it, he assumed “human likeness”.
In Greek, this ‘emptying’ is kenosis, the word often used in
commentaries for what Jesus did for us.
The glory which was his by nature and by right could now not
be seen (except in the momentary breakthrough of the Transfiguration). He
was seen as just a man, a human being. He shared all our limitations—”as we
are, yet without sin”.
That said, we have to be careful to keep a balance in our
understanding—Jesus was truly God, but he was also truly and in the fullest
sense, a human being (Greek, anthropos homo) and a male human being
(Greek, aner vir) at that. Even today, one hears Christians
understating Jesus’ humanity, as if it was only an external veneer. It
was a real man who suffered and died on the cross; anything less
diminishes the full meaning of the Incarnation and the witness of God’s love
which the Passion is.
But Jesus was not just incarnate as a human being.
Even in human terms, he further:
…emptied himself…he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Here is the ultimate submission and obedience to the
Father’s will: the surrender of his life. And it is the ultimate in
self-emptying. There was hardly anything more degrading and humiliating
than crucifixion. The crucified person was a convicted criminal and put
to death by a method of appalling cruelty in full view of the public. He was
left hanging naked, stripped of every vestige of human dignity. This was
the degree of degradation that Jesus accepted in order to show the depth of
God’s love for us sinners. (And for us, there is no shame in Jesus’ nakedness.
It is a sign of his total innocence. It is a reversal of the situation of our
First Parents, when, after their sin, their nakedness became a badge of shame
and guilt.)
If his death on the cross had been the end, Paul says:
…then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in
vain. (1 Cor 15:14)
But Paul says:
Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name…
“Exalted” in the original Greek means “raised him high”
through his resurrection and ascension. The Risen Jesus’ “name that is
above every other name” means that he is now addressed as “Lord”—the name that
belongs to him as the Son of God, sharing the very nature of his Father.
It is a name which puts him above all other created beings, including angels
and archangels.
Across the whole universe:
…every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth…
Bending the knee expresses even greater submission than
standing in the presence of a greater person.
And finally, the hymn says:
…every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
This is the very essence of our Christian belief: Jesus is
Lord, sharing in the very nature of God. By calling Jesus Lord, we give
glory to God the Father.
This hymn is one of the crucial passages in Paul’s letters
and indeed in the whole New Testament. It goes right to the heart of what
God has done for us through Jesus Christ. As Paul states at the
beginning, it expresses the very mind of Christ, and until we have fully
assimilated that “mind” into our own way of seeing our lives, we are not yet
fully his disciples. We, too, have to learn how to empty ourselves and
surrender ourselves totally into the hands of Jesus and the Father.
Commentary on
Luke 14:15-24
Today we have the last of four teachings of Jesus linked
with meals. It was prompted by the remark of a guest at table who said:
Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of
God!
It was very common to associate the future Messianic Kingdom
with a banquet. Jesus responds with a parable which is a warning to his
complacent listeners, many of whom probably smugly presumed that they would be
among the small minority chosen to eat in the Kingdom.
A man threw a large dinner party with many guests invited.
But when the time came and the guests were reminded, one after another they
gave excuses why they were not able to come. One had just bought a piece of
land and had to inspect it; another had just bought some oxen and had to try
them out; a third had just been married.
It seems that the original invitation had been accepted, but
when the final invitation came, excuses were made. In fact, none of the excuses
has much validity. One would not buy a field and only then look at it, nor
would one buy oxen without having tried them out before the purchase.
On hearing this, the master got very angry and ordered his
servants to:
Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and
bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.
After this, the servants reported that there was still room,
so they were given orders to scour the roads and bring in as many as they could
find. Said the host:
Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to
come in, so that my house may be filled.
The parable is a clear message from Jesus to his Jewish
listeners. Many of them, especially the religious leaders steeped in
complacency and presumption, had rejected the invitation to follow Jesus and
enter the Kingdom. Some of them would actually conspire to bring about his
death. Their place would be given to those formerly seen as outcasts—both Jews
and Gentiles—people who were aware of their own needs, i.e. the “poor in
spirit”. There would be a special place for the poor and the disabled, people
often seen by traditional Jews as people abandoned by God and buried in sin.
To go back to the beginning of the passage, blessed indeed
are those who eat together in the Kingdom, but it is clear that only those who
respond to the invitation will enjoy the privilege.
We have no more right to presumption than those Jews who
rejected Christ. We too are being invited to go into the Lord’s banquet hall,
but it is important that we respond to the call. We do that by our totally
accepting and living out the teaching of Jesus our Lord. And part of that
teaching is that we, too, invite and welcome into our community those who are
poor, crippled (in some way), the blind and the lame—taking these words in
their broadest sense. No more than those fellow diners of Jesus, our presence
at the Kingdom banquet is never to be taken for granted.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
God
of power and mercy, only with your help can we offer you fitting service and
praise.
May we live the faith we profess and trust your promise of eternal
life.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 14: 15-24
One of those
gathered round the table said to Jesus, “Blessed is anyone who will share the
meal in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “There was a man who gave a
great banquet, and he invited a large number of people. When the time for the
banquet came, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come
along: everything is ready now.’ But all alike started to make excuses.”
The
first said, "I have bought a piece of land and must go and see it. Please
accept my apologies."
Another
said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to try them out.
Please accept my apologies."
Yet another said, "I have just got married and so am unable
to come."
The servant returned and reported
this to his master. Then the householder, in a rage, said to his servant,
"Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here
the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame."
"Sir," said the servant,
"your orders have been carried out and there is still room." Then the
master said to his servant, "Go to the open roads and the hedgerows and
press people to come in, to make sure my house is full; because, I tell you,
not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet."
Reflection
The Gospel today continues the
reflection around themes linked to the table and the invitation. Jesus tells
the parable of the banquet. Many people had been invited, but the majority did
not go. The master of the feast was indignant because of the absence of those
who had been invited and then sent his servants to call the poor, the crippled
the blind and the lame. And even after that, there was still place. Then he
ordered his servant to invite everybody, until his house was full. This parable
was a light for the communities of the time of Luke.
In the communities at the time of
Luke there were Christians, who had come from Judaism and Christians who came
from the Gentiles, called pagans. Notwithstanding the difference in race, class
and gender, they lived profoundly the ideal of sharing and of communion (Acts
2: 42; 4: 32; 5: 12). But there were many difficulties because some norms of
legal purity prevented the Jews to eat with the pagans. And even after they had
entered into the Christian community, some of them kept this old custom of not
sitting at table with a pagan. This is the reason why Peter had a conflict with
the community of Jerusalem because he entered into the house of Cornelius, a
pagan and for having eaten with him (Acts 11: 3). Before these problems of the
communities, Luke kept a series of words of Jesus regarding the banquet. (Lk
14: 1-24). The parable on which we are meditating is an image of what was
happening in the communities.
• Luke 14: 15:
Blessed are those who will eat the bread of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus had
finished telling two parables: one on the choice of places (Lk 14: 711), and
the other on the choice of the guests who were invited (Lk 14: 12-14). While
listening to this parable someone who was at table with Jesus must have picked
up the importance of the teaching of Jesus and must have said: “Blessed are
those who eat the bread of the Kingdom of God!” The Jews compared the future
time of the Messiah to a banquet, characterized by gratitude and communion (Is
25: 6; 55: 1-2; Ps 22: 27). Hunger, poverty and the lack of so many things made
the people hope that in the future they would obtain what they were lacking and
did not have at present. The hope of the Messianic goods, usually experienced
in banquets, was a perspective of the end of time.
• Luke 14:
16-20: The great banquet is ready. Jesus responds with a parable. There was a
man who gave a great banquet and he invited a great number of people”. But the
duty of each one prevents the guests from accepting the invitation. The first
one says: “I have bought a piece of land and must go and see it!” The second “I
have bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to try them out!” The third one:
“I have just got married and so am unable to come!” In the limits of the law
those persons had the right not to accept the invitation (cf. Dt 20: 5-7).
• Luke 14:
21-22: The invitation remains, it is not cancelled. The master of the banquet
was indignant in seeing that his invitation had not been accepted. In last
instance, the one who is indignant is precisely Jesus because the norms of the
strict observance of the law, reduced the space for people to be able to live
the gratuity of an invitation to the house of friends, an invitation
characterized by the fraternal spirit and by sharing. Thus, the master of the
feast orders the servants to invite the poor, the blind, the crippled, the
lame. Those who were normally excluded because they were considered unclean,
are now invited to sit around the table of the banquet.
• Luke 14:
23-24: There is still place. The room is not full. There is still place. Then,
the master of the house ordered the servants to invite those passing on the
street. Those are the pagans. They are also invited to sit around the table. Thus,
in the banquet of the parable of Jesus, everybody sits around the same table,
Jews and pagans. At the time of Luke, there were many problems which prevented
the realization of this ideal of the common banquet. By means of the parable;
Luke shows that the practice of the banquet came precisely from Jesus.
• After the
destruction of Jerusalem, in the year 70, the Pharisees took over the
government in the Synagogues, demanding the rigid fulfilment of the norms which
identified them as the Jewish people. The Jews who converted to Christianity
were considered a threat, because they destroyed the walls which separated
Israel from other people. The Pharisees tried to oblige them to abandon the
faith in Jesus. And because they did not succeed, they drove them away from the
Synagogues. All this brought about a slow and progressive separation between
the Jews and the Christians, which was a source of great suffering, especially
for the converted Jews (Rm 9: 1-5). In the parable, Luke indicates very clearly
that these converted Jews were not unfaithful to their people. All the
contrary! They are the ones who are invited and accept the invitation. They are
the true continuators of Israel. Those who were unfaithful were those who did
not accept the invitation and did not want to recognize Jesus the Messiah (Lk
22: 66; Acts 13: 27).
Personal Questions
• In general,
which are the persons who are invited and which are the persons who in general
are not invited to our feasts?
• Which are the
reasons which today limit the participation of persons in society and in the
Church? And which are the reasons that some give to exclude themselves from the
community? Are they just reasons?
Concluding Prayer
Full of splendor and majesty his work, his saving justice stands
firm forever.
He gives us a memorial of his great deeds; Yahweh is mercy and
tenderness. (Ps 111: 3-4)
