Transcript:

Welcome to Gospel Gazing, where Redemptorist Priest David Hoare gives his take on gospel passages that may seem strange, implausible or difficult to understand. This time we’re looking at Luke and the general term generosity of spirit. Welcome, David.

Fr David CSsR
Hello, David, good to be with you once again.

David Ahern
Yes, thank you. So this is be dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. What is Luke talking about here? Is this about being neighbourly?

Fr David
I think, to start with David, the important thing to remember is that the Christian life really calls us to live with a sense of being in expectation. Expectation for something greater and its fulfillment may be sure, but its timing is really unknown. Be sure, but its timing is really unknown. So, therefore, all of us are called to develop and grow an attitude of watchfulness and attentiveness. That’s what’s required, even if the Master’s return, jesus’ return, is delayed. Jesus doesn’t want us to be so distracted that we miss the grace of God coming to us. He wants us to be alert, ready, watchful and open, and we must watch for Jesus’ presence and listen for his word.

Things like possessions and superficial things can’t satisfy the human heart. It’s only God that has the treasure that will satisfy us and for which we ought to truly long. And that treasure, of course, is Jesus himself. Jesus himself, and in the passage he comes from the marriage banquet and knocks on the door of our hearts, seeking to enter, and he wants to take us then to the great banquet of the kingdom which has been prepared for us, and it’s there our deepest longings will be satisfied.

And, just as an interesting aside, in the verses that follow this one that you just read for us. We find that the master comes home and he does find the servants awake and waiting, and then he does something extraordinary in a complete reversal of the hierarchical world he himself puts on an apron and serves the servants. And we need to think then about the Last Supper Jesus, who would say I am among you as one who serves. And so authority is always expressed in table service and gospel hospitality, and that’s where the sense of neighbourliness comes in. But the heart of the text is really about us being ready. The heart of the text is really about us being ready, ready and open for where God is at action in our lives and how God’s presence can be seen and experienced.