04 Nov 2024 – Monday of Week 31

04 Nov 2024 – Monday of Week 31

Memorial: St Charles Borromeo, 1538-84, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, reformer, drafted the Catechism of the Council of Trent. Patron of catechists and seminarians.

1st Reading: Philippians 2:1-4

Setting aside rivalry or conceit, all should be generous to others

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Responsorial: from Psalm 130

Resp.: In you, Lord, I have found my peace

O Lord, my heart is not proud
nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great
nor marvels beyond me. (R./)

Truly I have set my soul
in silence and peace.
A weaned child on its mother’s breast,
even so is my soul. (R./)

O Israel, hope in the Lord
both now and for ever. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 14:12-14

Inviting the poor to your table will be rewarded

[At a meal in the house of a Pharisee]
Jesus said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Sharing our blessings

In general, people live by the Quid pro Quo principle, caring for ourselves and family and friends and paying our lawful debts, and ocasionally giving to some charity. We feel that everyone should work for their living and that the State should take care of the disabled and the aged. But maybe our faith asks a bit more than that from us.

Because God gives us everything we have, we should share our blessings with others, Jesus said: Go the extra mile, Turn the other cheek, Be as merciful as God our Father. His call to go beyond the call of duty echoes in today’s Gospel. The parable sets the bar very high, inviting us to show even unmerited hospitality to others. Its implication is that our dealings with others should measure up to God’s goodness to us : “Blessed are they who show mercy, for mercy shall be theirs” (Mt 5:7).

St Paul translates that general ideal of mercy into specific examples, for his readers. They are to foster unity of spirit and shared ideals, avoid all rivalry or conceit, and sincerely care for the interests of others. He then makes it very personal by saying that the harmony in that community will gladden his heart, as their founding apostles. I beg you make my joy complete . He conveys a sense of moral obligation while respecting their freedom and spontaneity. His letter alternates between “what you owe me” and “what I hope from you.”

The gospel illustrates a level generosity far beyond what most of us will ever fully practice. “When you’re holding a party, invite people who are ill, lonely or marginalised.” Even if those words literally, we need to take them seriously, as an orientation that’s part of our Christian vocation. God our Fathr invited us to a banquet of joy and new life.

The assurance that we will be repaid in the resurrection of the just, can help us to be spontaneously generous, with God’s will in mind. Any good works we get involved in mus not not be (or not mainly) to win us praise and reputation among our neighbours, but as part of our personal spirit, as people on the way to eternal life.

Mealtime companions

A wealthy Pharisee had invited Jesus to dinner. Inviting him as a guest was itself unusual, since Pharisees tended to eat only with their circle of like-minded friends. Then the surprising guest proposes that his host should regularly bring to dinner people whom he would not normally think to invite, people who were outsiders, poor and hungry.

In contrast to the Pharisees, Jesus regularly dined with all sorts of people, rich and poor alike, with the educated and uneducated, with the devout and outsiders, with men and with women. The broad range of his table companions was typical of his personality. Nobdy was ruled out from his outreach and his company. His aim was to reveal God’s gracious welcome for everyone, especially those who were considered outsiders. By his actual lifestyle, and notably by the company he kept, he mirrored the broad hospitality of God. In contrast, the Pharisees imagined a God who was exclusive rather than inclusive.

While we are meant to practice something of that hospitality in our whole way of life, it’s all too easy to exclude some people from our goodwill. It is tempting to dine only within a circle of friends who share our attitudes and who can invite us back. The Spirit invites us to widen our circle and our sympaties, to be more in tune with the practice of Jesus.