Invitations to Dinner
23rd Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 14:16-24
The Gospel parable tells us about invitations to a great dinner - what we now call a feast. At first glance, it is strange here that the guests invited to dinner are in no hurry to arrive, but refuse. Nowadays, people usually like to go to all kinds of festive lunches or dinners (They just don't like to listen to long speeches...) Obviously, we are not talking about some ordinary dinner-banquet, but about a spiritual dinner - the Lord's Supper.
In the Lord's prayer, we pray every day that God would give us "our daily bread", so that we can have everything necessary to support our daily life, first of all, of course, the life of our body.
And God is merciful to us: onto the dark soil, God sends moisture--rains, snows-- daily sends the sun's rays, which warm the earth, and the earth, surrounded by air, day after day, year after year produces a large number of different plants and animals that people use for food, for making clothes and shoes, for building buildings, heating them, and so on.
A kind of "trinity" - air, moisture and sunlight - combining with the earth, gives everything necessary for the continuation of life. In its essence, a continuous great Sacrament is created, thanks to the power, grace and foresight of God; it provides the conditions for maintaining our life on the globe. And all that constantly renews and enlivens our Earth, all that happens beyond the reach of human capabilities. For all those gifts of God, for the constant manifestation of God's care and mercy towards us, people, we should always be grateful to our God the Creator.
But the Lord Jesus Christ said that "man cannot live by bread alone", that we cannot live a full life when we only consume physical food for our body. Our spiritual being, our soul, needs just as much sustenance, but specifically spiritual, to maintain its life, just as our body needs material sustenance.
That is why the Lord Jesus Christ invites us to His Supper, so that we can eat spiritual food, food for our hungry soul. Let us keep in mind that the soul that does not receive spiritual nourishment for a long time, freezes, and spiritual aspirations are extinguished in a person - only the forces of evil can overwhelm the soul.
A hungry human soul, which has no spiritual food, is defenceless against the forces of evil, against devilish temptations. Therefore, in order that this does not happen, the Lord arranges his Holy Supper - to satiate our souls. Every Divine Liturgy is in fact the Holy Supper. It is necessary for the nourishment of our souls; its gifts are also necessary for the health of our bodies. Let us recall the words from the prayer before receiving Holy Communion:
"May the communion of Your Holy Mysteries, O Lord, be neither to my judgement nor condemnation, but unto the healing of soul and body."
Let us also not forget that the Holy Communion is at the same time union with Christ; with that spiritual substance we unite with Christ and our God - we become one (spiritual) body with Him.
Undoubtedly, those spiritual transformations do not happen by the performance of the rite itself, but only as a result of our faith. Therefore, let us beware only of the formal fulfilment of the ritual, as proclaimed by Paul:
" For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (1 Corinthians 11:29)
Thus, the Lord invites us at least once a week to His Supper – at the Divine Liturgy. In which the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Eucharist is performed. Let us also remember that in the Divine Liturgy, the Lord offers us Communion from two main spiritual dishes:
a) Communion of the Word of God – The Gospel, reading from The Epistle, sermon of the priest;
b) Communion of the Body and Blood - so that the Lord may dwell in us with his being, that we may become united with Him.
In our essence, we become united with Christ and the Communion of the Word of God, and with the Communion of His Body and Blood.
The human tragedy is that many people do not seek to take advantage of the Lord's invitations to join with the Lord in his hospitality, but look for, or rather - invent, various reasons for their absence at that Supper. Something similar to the cases mentioned in the parable happens:
"I have bought a field, and I need to go and inspect it."
"I bought myself five pairs of oxen - and I'm going to try them."
"I got married, and that's why I can't come."
Due to the fact that we do not travel by ox-cart, but by cars or airplanes, we have many more reasons, because we find it necessary and possible to visit relatives, or to go to the lake, or to a wedding, or to get sick...
By such deceitful reasonings we cannot be justified before our conscience, so much less can we be justified before God. It is important for us to be aware that we become members of Christ's Church from the moment of baptism, but the members of his Church, his body, need to receive nourishment from Him. Without nourishment from Christ, without participation in His Supper, we die spiritually. The Lord Jesus Christ figuratively expressed it in the following:
"I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." (John 15:5-6)
And the Lord testified that those people who refused, for various invented reasons, to come to His Supper, will be cast away like those dry branches which are provided only for the fire. And thus it is confirmed by the word of the Lord:
“’For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’” (Luke 14,24)
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
