An invitation to the 'cool' table

When young Brandon was growing up, he attended public grade school and middle school. When it was time to enter high school, his parents enrolled him in a Catholic high school.  He was extremely introverted, so for a period of time he would sit at a table all by himself at lunch.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t friendly, he just felt uncomfortable initiating friendships.  About 3 or 4 weeks after his arrival at the school, one of his teammates from the football team came up and asked him, “Would you like to sit with us?” and pointed to a table full of students.  He hesitated at first, because of his shyness, but in the end, he said, “Sure” and started eating lunch with pretty much the same crowd from then on.  As the football season got rolling, and the team was doing well, everybody wanted to sit at the table with the football players, the cheerleaders and anybody else who was considered “cool”.  The table they were sitting at became colloquially known as the “cool” table.  Not just anybody could sit there.  You had to be “cool”.  Brandon was considered “un-cool” until he was invited that day, and in a way, it hurt.  But, as Father Brandon will tell you today, being “cool” is decidedly better!

In the days of the Gospel, there were 3 types of people who were shunned because they were considered “unclean”; those who had leprosy, those who had touched or been around the dead, and those who were suffering from bodily discharges like the hemorrhaging woman (Mark 5: 21-43).  It was considered taboo to invite these people to dinner, or walk with them, or have anything to do with them.  In a sense, they were “un-cool” to be around.

But the “un-cool” are the very people whom Christ came to invite to the “coolest” table of them all; His Father’s table.  So when He heard about Jairus’ daughter, He dropped everything and started out.  He put no restrictions on Jairus and asked him no questions; He just “went off with him.”  He came to invite all of God’s children to His table, and Jairus, through his faith, had accepted the offer.  The same is true with the hemorrhaging woman.  She merely had to “ask”—although she didn’t ask verbally—and Christ healed her simply on the basis of her faith!

If you think about it, Jesus never put restrictions on anyone He helped.  All you have to do is believe in Him and to imitate Him to the best of your ability.  How many times after curing someone or healing an affliction did He say, “Go, your faith has saved you”, or “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace and sin no more”?

We are all under the cloud of sin (Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24, 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15) which would, in Christ’s time, have made us “un-cool”.  Christ continues to call out to each of us every day inviting us to the “coolest” table of all—His Altar—where we can partake of His very Body and Blood.