Reflection
Paul encourages the Philippians to place Jesus at the centre of their lives. Here Paul is advocating, not just to have knowledge of Jesus, or to only acknowledge him or have some vague recognition of him.
No, he is to be our priority, our centre, the anchor point of our lives. We are encouraged to imitate him and to live our lives in relationship to Jesus
The theme of choosing and making priorities seems to resonate in today’s readings.
The parable Jesus uses to illustrates this virtue – that is, the value of making good choices and being faithful to what is right and wholesome. At the same time, his use of the parable also enables him to highlight the exorbitant generosity of God and illustrates the extent to which God makes room for all of us.
We could get distracted in our reflection by the range of excuses and possibly even justify each one as ‘reasonable’. However, the inescapable truth is the fact is that the invited guests choose their own convenience over or against the offer of hospitality on the part of the host.
The central message is more about God’s desire for us and the faith imagination of Jesus as he characterises life with God as a feast.
In light of this graciousness, we are invited to make our priority our relationship with God.
A secondary message might well be the warning or lesson to be aware of the many invitations God offers us in life, and not to ignore what is being offered because we are distracted or preoccupied with our own concerns.
