RING OUT THE OLD … RING IN THE NEW

The Gospel Text for next Sunday’s (22nd) reminds me of a poem by Alfred Tennyson. Yes, there seems to be a connection. Christ says that He and His Apostles will be launching a new banquet wherein the four categories of “good people” give way to the other four: “When you give a feast invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind” (v. 13).

The crippled, the blind, the poor and the lame were not allowed into the temple of the Lord (Lev 21:18; 2 S 5:8). Their condition was a clear sign of their sin and the assembly of the Israelites was to be composed of people of integrity, perfect, pure, flawless.

Jesus announces that He has come to introduce a new feast, a banquet where the excluded, the people rejected by everyone, would become the first guests, those to whom the seats of honour are reserved.
From the very beginning, tensions exploded in the early Church because of the discrimination dictated by the criteria of their culture. James testifies in his letter that he is forced to remind the Christians. He says: “Suppose a person enters the synagogue where you are assembled, dressed magnificently and wearing a gold ring; at the same time, a poor person enters dressed in rags, if you focus your attention on the well-dressed and say: ‘Come and sit in the best seat’ while to the poor one you say: ‘Keep standing or else sit down at my feet’. Have you not made a distinction between the two?” (Jas 2:2-4).

Jesus is presenting a homely case to drive in His point of eternal truth. This was the Jewish culture; if an undistinguished guest arrived early at a feast and chose an important seating at the table, but then a distinguished guest arrives, the man who had usurped the first place would be asked, rather told, to give up his seat. As we can see, the quotation by James, makes this Jewish custom clear. But Christ is ringing out the old to bring in the new. He is underlining the virtue of ‘humility’.

Christ never taught by words alone, He actually did, acted on what He was preaching. Was it not Christ who gave a clear example to His Apostles during the Last Supper? Was it not Christ Whose actions spoke out loud and clear by washing the feet of His Apostles? Was not this a clear message to underline His teachings, His belief, that who wants to be the first must serve the others?

‘Ring in the new’ goes the poem, but what was new? The poor, the blind, the crippled, the lame, represent those who did wrong in life. They are the symbol of those who walk without the light of the Gospel and stumble, fall and hurt themselves, and, others, switching from one error to another. Jesus reminds his disciples that the feast was organized just for them. Woe to us who exclude them. The doctor attends to the sick and not to the healthy.

According to the philosophy which existed since the 8th century before Christ, the people were urged, encouraged to invite to the table, only those who love them, and to forget the enemy. It was taken as a matter of fact to love only those who love you; to go to one who comes to you. They were encouraged to give to him who gives them and not to give to those who do not give them. No wonder the maxim of ‘a tooth for a tooth’. Christ rang in the new; to forgive the enemies, to love everyone. Christ went so far as to remind, not only the Pharisees and the Scribes, but to one and all, even in this day and age, that who is going to offer a sacrifice must first make peace with his enemies.

The poor must be loved because he is lovable, not out of compassion or assuming an attitude of haughty superiority. Certainly, it is not easy to find something nice, attractive in an enemy, in a criminal. And this is the Franciscan Spirituality. St.Francis loved the wolf, the fishes, the birds, those who harmed him or offended him, and all created objects because they all witness God’s wisdom and love. Incidentally this line of thought was taken up by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, who believed that all matter, being stones, rocks, hills and mountains praise God for their creation. ‘Ring in the new’.