Tag: Saint Charles Borromeo

“Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.” | Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop

From the responsorial psalm: “O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty; I busy not myself with great things, nor with things too sublime for me. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14:12-14)

“When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. 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.”

As a dinner guest of one of the leading Pharisees, Jesus speaks these words to his host. Although Luke doesn’t say how he responds, we know that the criticism Jesus gives him gets at the heart of the reason the Pharisee held banquets for his guests. Does it look good in the eyes of the others? Does it impress the other guests at a banquet to see important guests. Does it inflate the ego of the host who delights in their awe? To participate in self-inflating reciprocity—to pay for honor and receive it in return for the sake of grandiosity—comes from deep dysfunction. Out of love for the people whose hearts he fashioned, Jesus tells them to stop. Instead, exit this game and open your home and your hearts to people who for whatever reason do not have the means of paying you back.

God, deepen my capacity to recognize the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. You put them daily in my field of view—those whose limitations may be physical but are more often mental or spiritual. In yesterday’s Gospel, the words still echo in my mind: that you alone are the Lord and to love you with all my heart, with all my understanding, with all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. Help me, Lord, as I seek to love you and love my neighbor more completely. Yet, hearing the phrase “as myself” makes me realize that loving others does not mean you allow oneself to be a doormat. It means to live in the freedom of loving you through the inherent dignity as your child—a love we all carry inside us that seeks the well-being of others without compromising the common good. Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for us!

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.

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“The one who humbles himself will be exalted.” | Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 14:1, 7-11)

At the home of one of the leading Pharisees, Jesus told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor. A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place. Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches lessons on humility and the importance of avoiding seeking honor and recognition. As he tells the parable, he shows those who listen to choose the lower place rather than the places of honor at a table. Jesus says: “Go and take the lowest place so that when the host comes to you he may say, ‘My friend, move up to a higher position. . . .’ For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” With the supreme model of humility given to us by Christ in his complete self-emptying on the cross in obedience to the Father, we have every means available to humble ourselves before others and before God.

Father in heaven, meet me where I am today in my desire to purge myself of seeking honor at whichever table honor has a place. I often take the long way to humility when I would do better to take the short way; that is, help me abandon the habits of defensiveness, arrogance, and judgment that inhibit me from humbling myself. Give me the grace to hold my tongue when I have the impulse to uphold what is better to let go of; come to my aid, God, in following the example of your Son.

From the Gospel acclamation: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, For I am meek and humble of heart.” Saint Charles Borromeo, pray for us.

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.

Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop

Jesus said to his disciples, “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells the parable of the steward who squandered property. When his master made clear that he would no longer be his steward, the steward then made dishonest arrangements with his master’s debtors to give him an advantage once out of his service. The meaning of the parable is somewhat difficult to unravel. In subsequent passages in Luke, however, Jesus says this about the steward in the parable: “If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?” God, how far do I go in recognizing true wealth when I see it, and how do I take that into my care as a steward of my faith?

Help me understand, Lord, the Gospel and the reading from Saint Paul. Through Jesus’ dying and rising, I have the means—the freedom to choose—of attaining eternal life even as a sojourner here on earth. Saint Paul speaks of this choice: “Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their ‘shame.’ Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Saint Charles Borromeo, whose memorial is celebrated today, recognized the place of worldly things in respect to the world to come, saying, “Make use of [the things of this world] according to need, not pleasure, and take care to pass through these temporal things in such a way as not to lose things eternal.”

Jesus, be present with me today so that I can stand firm in desiring true wealth and bringing its hope to others. Through your grace, Lord, let me recall that I live in the hope of the resurrection because of your power to bring all things into subjection to yourself. I want to be a child of the light.

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.

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