Invited to the Banquet

In today's Gospel (Luke 14:15-24) Jesus tells of a grand banquet prepared by a king, but the invited guests one-by-one have an excuse of why they cannot attend.  I read in a reflection of today's Gospel of how the excuse of each guests represents the sins in our lives.

The first guest asked to excused because he had purchased a field and needed to examine it.  This is the excuses we use when our work or other activities take the focus of our lives.  The second guest had purchased five yoke of oxen and was off to evaluate them.  This is the excuse we use when the martial things of this world takes our focus.  The third is that the guest was just married.  This excuse is when we put ourselves above others, our needs come first, our focus is on ourselves.  None of these guest gave any thought or consideration to the sacrifice of the king - the food which
had to be prepared, the table had to be set.

Each week we are all invited to a great feast by the King - and each week we can find an excuse to not attend.  I've probably used everyone of them many times over at some point in my life.  My attention was on me and my needs, not on the sacrifice the King has made to set this beautiful table.

The invitation is always there for us - come to the table - Christ is the host and he has set the banquet before us. All are welcome!  Now it is up to each of us to accept the invitation - put our needs aside and focus on the Lord.