Homily: October 18, 2022. Tuesday of the twenty-ninth week in Ordinary time (Feast of St. Luke)

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“Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you.”

This sounds fine to me because I am not fussy with food and am happy to eat anything offered. I can’t think of any food that I will not eat. And it helps a lot in my ministry, especially in this parish since I get invited to homes of various cultures and different cuisine. So far, I do enjoy Eritrean, Burmese, Laotian, Sudanese, Mexican and of course, American food. Yes, it is easy to feed me but very difficult to slim me down.

But why did Jesus give such a specific instruction to His disciples regarding eating and drinking? It may look simple for us, but it was challenging to His disciples.

They were Jews and the Jewish law laid out very strict food practices and prohibitions. And now they were being sent out to Gentile villages to preach to them. They were to live in Gentile homes and eat as they eat, drink as they drink. The disciples probably had never done anything like that before. Can you imagine the cultural shock they would face?

Yet, they must learn to be open to differences, they were not to approach with egocentric attitudes, to hold superior their own culture and think inferior of others like they used to before they followed Jesus.

In order to establish a trusting friendship with someone, it is very important to be open to their culture, language, lifestyle and food, to respect their dignity and value beyond the differences.

St. Paul had this same attitude. In 1Cor, 9:20-23, he said, “To the Jews, I became like a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law….to those outside the law, I became like one outside the law….to the weak, I have become weak in order to win over the weak. I have become all things to all so that by every possible means I might save some.”

In the same way, as we come together to celebrate the same salvation won by the same Lord, embrace the same faith gifted by the same God, feast at the same Eucharistic table laid down by the same sacrifice, do we see each other as different and distanced? Or do we see everyone as equally loved and in communion with the Lord?

Everyone of us here, no matter how differently we look or behave now, will be sharing the same heaven for eternity. And many more out there, are also called to the same destiny. It is our mission to bring them to this celebration. Let us be open to everyone, to win everyone to the Gospel.

Amen.

Fr. Nivin Scaria 


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