The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Philippians 2:5-11
Psalm 22:26b-27, 28-30ab, 30e, 31-32
Luke 14:15-24

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

In today’s Gospel we hear about the man who prepared a large dinner and invited many guests. When dinner was to begin, many of them began to make excuses about why they suddenly were unable to come.

The excuses that were given tell us a lot about human nature and hopefully allow us an opportunity to reflect on how we, in our own way, are often like the invited guests and make excuses for not accepting the Lord’s invitation to be in His presence.

Like the “no show” dinner guests, do we value the accumulation of possessions more than obtaining greater virtue . . . and do we value human relationships rather than those that guarantee us heaven?

Our answers should startle us if they are in the affirmative, especially when we hear that those who were invited and chose instead not to come “will not taste a morsel” of the heavenly banquet that the Lord has prepared.

Let us not remain foolish, but pray for wisdom to “number rightly, our days.” In other words let us get things straight, our priorities in order and stop flirting with the loss of heaven, “eternal disaster” as Fr. Thomas Dubay so aptly describes it.

- Donna Nelson, OCDS
(drn3rd at hughes dot net)