A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14:12-14)
Jesus said: “Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel to a leading Pharisee who invited him to dine at his home. He tells him not to invite those close to him in case they might invite him back and as a result have repayment. In telling the Pharisee to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, Jesus instructs him in the means of resurrection to eternal life with the Father. Three times Jesus mentions the notion of repayment in reference to its flow. Who does the Pharisee host, and what is expected in return? In what many forms does fear of repayment bind, and what does Jesus teach about hospitality and the flow of currency that leads to the banquet of eternal life?
Father in heaven, I don’t often see and am not accustomed to seeing the broken and destitute people Jesus names in the Gospel. Yet it is exactly those who are to be invited to the banquet. Jesus holds true to his word in that he invites the same to his banquet at every celebration of the Mass. In receiving the Eucharist, as I approach the body and blood of Christ before the altar, I become the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. In that sacrament I recognize my dependence on you for every good gift and invite the Holy Spirit to do what is necessary so that I become the body and blood of Christ that I consume. Give me the grace, Lord, to be Christlike to the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame in whatever guise I encounter them. And help me begin to see that they are right before me every day. “For the LORD hears the poor,” the psalmist writes, “and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”
From the responsorial psalm: “But I am afflicted and in pain; let your saving help, O God, protect me. I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving. Lord, in your great love, answer me.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.