wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than
you has been invited; and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you, ‘Please
give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat! Whenever you
are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you, ‘Friend, you
must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests.
For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be
exalted.
Reflect:
One of the diary entries of Blessed Carlo Acutis reads thus: “Sadness is looking at oneself,
happiness is looking at God. Conversion is nothing but a movement of the eyes.” The
difference in gaze of Paul and that of the invitees at the banquet Jesus attends is evidence to
the truth of Carlo’s words. The invitees are so full of themselves, their eyes narcissistically fixated
on their own needs that they are eager to occupy the seats of honor, and thereby look good for
themselves and others. They are simply unable to see and acknowledge the presence and
honor of others. In contrast, all that Paul can see is Christ. For him, living is for Christ and
dying is to be with Christ. Even when he looks at himself, all he can see is Christ; and hence,
he cries out, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
© Copyright Bible Diary 2022