Dominica II post Pentecosten

Immediately after instructing the Pharisees to seek the lowest place at the table, rather than the highest, Our Lord proceeds to tell them a parable, the parable we hear in our Gospel today.

Christ used the image of a meal, or a banquet several times as an image of the Kingdom of God, an image that was used by a number of the prophets, particularly Isaiah, and an image that is found right up to the end of the scriptures in the Apocalypse.

Just as in His other well known “banquet” parable, recorded by St. Matthew, when it comes time for the festivities to begin, all of the invited guests begin to make excuses as to why they cannot attend.

Now, just a superficial reading of this parable, might give us the impression that Our Lord simply chose random excuses, relevant to His hearers, but with Christ, we know that nothing is random, and everything has meaning, not just for his time but for ours as well.

These are not random excuses, but symbolic ones, and they symbolize what might be called the three principle temptations, the same temptations, in fact, that Our Lord Himself faced, and which are given names by St. John:

the concupiscence of the flesh

the concupiscence of the eyes

and the pride of life

and if we want to be ready when Our Lord sends us His graces, when He extends us an invitation to His feast, then they are the three temptations that we must avoid at all costs.

Let’s look at each one in turn.

ILLUSTRATION: Three principal temptations

St. Augustine, in a sermon given on this passage of scripture gives us a wonderful and clear explanation of these three temptations:

The first man asks to be excused because he has just bought a farm, and in Our Lord’s parable, this symbolizes pride.

We might wonder today, what could be prideful about owning a farm, but in Our Lord’s time, it was very significant.

Owning a farm meant that you were a land owner, and being a land owner meant that you were the boss, that you didn’t have to report to anyone anymore, and you now had your own group of workers that had to do what you told them to do.

St. Augustine describes it like this: “In the purchase of the farm, the spirit of domination is marked out; therefore pride is rebuked. For men are delighted to have a farm, to hold, to possess it, to have men in it under them, to have dominion. An evil vice, the first vice. For the first man wished to have dominion, in that he would not that any should have dominion over him. What is to have dominion, but to take pleasure in one’s own power?”

Our Lord experienced this same temptation when Satan offered Him all of the Kingdoms of the World, if he but bow down and worship him.

The second man asks to be excused because he just purchased five pairs of oxen, and this symbolizes the concupiscence of the eyes.

Why five pairs? Why not just say “some oxen”? Because, nothing is random, in saying “five pairs”, Our Lord is referring to the five senses.

In other words, someone who lives by their five senses alone, with no spiritual sense, all they care about is what they can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, the things of this world.

Of course, worldly goods are not always physical things, they can include fame, honour, prestige and the like.

Again, St. Augustine describe it like this: “For oxen turn up the earth. So there are men far off from faith, given up to earthly things, occupied in the things of the flesh; who will not believe anything but what they attain to by the five senses of their body. In those five senses do they lay down for themselves the rules of their whole will.”

And again, Our Lord experienced this temptation when Satan told Him to leap from the top of the Temple, and have the angels catch him, which would have given him instant fame.

Finally, the third man asks to be excused because he has just married a wife, which St. Augustine explains is the concupiscence of the flesh, saying:

“This is the pleasure of the flesh, which is a hindrance to many: and I would that it were so only without, and not within! … He that speaks thus, 'has married a wife,' attaches himself to the flesh, places his delight in the pleasures of the flesh, excuses himself from the supper; let him look well to it that he die not by an inward famine.”

The concupiscence of the flesh is that desire to fulfill the needs and wants of the body, and this can include gluttony as well as lust.

This was the temptation to turn stones into bread, to satisfy Our Lord’s hunger after fasting 40 days.

If we wish to be ready, to respond to the movements of grace that Christ sends our way, and if we wish to be prepared to enter the feast when Our Lord calls us, then we have to actively seek out ways to counteract these temptations in our lives.

APPLICATION: The evangelical counsels give us the remedy

So how do we do just that, how do we seek to counteract the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life?

When the rich young man approached Our Lord and asked what he needed to do to achieve salvation, Christ first told the young man to follow the Commandments. This we might say is the necessary foundation for salvation.

But Our Lord goes further and tells him to sell everything he has and give to the poor, and here we find the first of the three remedies that we’re looking for, which we call the evangelical counsels.

The evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience takes us from being mere surface Christians, towards the perfection that we are called to by Christ, and they are the sure remedies against these three temptations.

We often think of these counsels in regard to religious or consecrated life, but they are meant for all Christians, and if we want them to be true remedies, they have to be lived not just outwardly, but inwardly.

Chastity is the remedy for the concupiscence of the flesh,

and so we need to cultivate a desire for Holy Purity, by prayer,

and by guarding our hearts for God (and the for those who are married, for your spouse as well).

Unchastity always begins in the heart first.

Poverty is the remedy for the concupiscence of the eyes.

Of course, those who live in the world are not called to the radical poverty of religious,

but we should seek to be content with having our needs met, and not indulging ourselves in unnecessary extravagances.

Making excuses to by the newest and shiniest version of something, when the one we have works just fine.

Cluttering our homes, and our hearts with things we don’t need, and probably won’t use.

Finally, obedience is the remedy for pride.

Again, laypeople don’t take vows of obedience to anyone like religious, but God gives us occasions where we are called to obedience nonetheless.

We are to be obedient to our parents, and that doesn’t end when we move out of the house either.

We are called to be obedient to our superiors at school or at work.

We are called to be obedient to our pastors, bishops, and the Holy Father, and this includes our confessor or spiritual director.

The only thing that excuses from obedience is when something is asked of us that is contrary to faith or morals.

Otherwise, submitting our will to the will of another imperfect human is excellent training to counter pride, and makes it that much easier to follow the will of a perfect God.

In a few moments, the master of the feast, Jesus Christ will offer us another moment of grace in the Holy Eucharist, a foretaste of the great banquet to which we are invited, let us promise him, that we will not make excuses, but will be ready to respond to His invitation, whenever it comes.

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