Jesus invites the whole world to his banquet even though the world is unable to repay him. He welcomes the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us to pray before we enter into this feast, we "come sick to the doctor of life, unclean to the fountain of mercy, blind to the radiance of eternal light, and poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth." We owe so much that we cannot repay him but Jesus forgives our entire debt (cf. Mat. 18:27).
Now we have a choice. What do we do now that we are well fed? We taste the banquet of the LORD in which he heals us and satisfies the longings of our hearts. These are the times of our life when we host banquets ourselves. Do we only invite those who can repay us? Are we hosting them for reasons of selfishness? Perhaps we want to look like a magnanimous host. But deep down we may find that we are not that host. We may insist on repayment. If this is true, we aren't holding banquets for the sake of those who come. We are holding them for selfishness and vainglory.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also everyone for those of others.
It isn't sinful to have a banquet where we get something out of it. The company of friends and neighbors is a good thing. Even having them kick in for some of the expenses isn't wrong. It only becomes wrong when we no longer really care about the people who are coming. It only becomes wrong when it is all about us. Jesus wants us to have a heart like his own heart. He wants us to have the Christian freedom to give a banquet without repayment.
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
This is the mind of Jesus for us. At the banquet of the mass he encourages us. He gives us solace with his love. Amazingly, we participate in the Spirit because we have all been made to drink of one Spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 12:13). It is his compassion and mercy that brings us here. There is no way we can deserve it. Even if we work at it for all eternity we will never repay him for love so great. Paul and Jesus both invite us:
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
What is that one thing? Love, of course. But Christ's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Can we really have the same mind and the same love? Paul wonders the same thing we he asks, "Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" He boldly answers his own question: "But we have the mind of Christ" (cf. 1 Cor 2:16).
The world can't love like this. It can't think of only one thing. It always has selfishness and vainglory mixed in. And this affects our minds. They become tethered, unable to love freely. What should we do? "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (cf. Rom. 12:2).
And how do we let the renewing of our minds have its effect? The Holy Spirit gives us the mind of Christ. He offers to renew it constantly. How do we receive this grace and let it transform us? The psalmist knows:
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap,
so is my soul within me.
When quiet ourselves in this way we are transformed. We say with the psalmist, "In you, O Lord, I have found my peace."
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