Mother's Milk

Accepting our Lord’s invitation to his banquet

11/05/2019

Luke 14:15-24 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.'"

One of my favorite functions as a priest and pastor is to visit families for dinner. Whenever I arrive at a new home, though, I have to smile at the irony of my dinner dates. Why? Well, growing up, my parents never invited the priest over for supper. Sometimes it’s good to keep the pastor at arm’s length and not get too close. He may ask for more money! One thing that humbles me the lengths people go to prepare for dinner with the priest. Recently, I visited a family and asked the children: “What did you do all day?” They sulkily replied: “We spent the whole day cleaning the house for your arrival.” I answered, “Oh, gee, thanks! Sorry to ruin your day.” And I thought: no wonder my parents never invited the priest over for supper.

Another sacrifice people make it the length they go to prepare the meal and set the table. Some people cook for hours, set the table with fresh flowers, bring out their best china, and even eat in the formal dining room. Indian cooking doesn’t take hours, some dishes take days. On some dates, though, I receive multiple invitations and cannot honor them all, on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s or Easter. Sometimes, I table hop and try to get to several meals in one night. Ah, the sacrifices we priests make for Jesus!

Over 23 years of visiting families I have literally shared thousands of meals with parishioners. I’ve learned that being invited to supper is not only something special, it is even something intimate. If you’ll forgive the comparison – I believe it is similar to a mother breast-feeding her baby. A family feeds its dinner guests with the milk of their love and sacrifice, and guests should feel grateful for this great gift.

In Luke 14, Jesus teaches a parable about a dinner to which many were invited but they declined the dinner. What does the host do? He commands his servants: “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.” In other words, the host has gone to great lengths to prepare this banquet and the invited guests were not grateful for his love or sacrifice. When we remember the feast refers to the meal in the Kingdom of God, we realize it took all eternity to prepare, not just a few hours, or even a few days like some Indian dishes.

But now let’s apply the intimate analogy of breast-feeding to giving a meal, and we discover how harsh the rejection of the invited guest feels. And by the way, in case you think I invented the analogy of breast-feeding to a banquet, listen to Isaiah 66:1, the last chapter of Isaiah and the fulfillment of God’s prophesies and promises. The Seer says: “So that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breasts; That you may drink with delight at her abundant breasts.” That is, God’s heavenly banquet is nothing short of the milk of his love. Therefore, rejecting his invitation to dinner is tantamount to a baby rejecting its mother’s milk. What could be worse?

My friends, we don’t have to wait till heaven to sit at the banquet God has prepared for us from all eternity. That banquet of his love is spread out for us at every Mass, in the Body and Blood of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the milk of divine love. One of the most ancient images of the Eucharist is that of the mother pelican that wounds its breast to feed its babies. Have you ever seen that image in churches? You can see, I hope, how the image of the pelican and the image of the breast-feeding easily combine to give a rich meaning to the meal of the Mass. That’s the Good News.

Here’s the bad news. Just like in Jesus’ parable, many are invited but not many accept the invitation to dinner. How many Catholics have left the Church and snub our Lord’s invitation to dinner at Sunday Mass? Like in the parable where the invited guests have lots of ready excuses for declining the dinner, so too modern Catholics have a ton of excuses to miss Mass, and other things they’d rather do. But the heart of our Lord hurts like a mother who wants to breast-feed her baby, but is rejected.

Our Savior wants to feed us with the Blood of his sacrifice and the milk of his love in the Eucharist. Please don’t decline Jesus’ invitation to dinner, and I won’t decline your invitation to dinner either.

Praised be Jesus Christ!