Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him, “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.”

The words of Jesus in today’s Gospel reading are an invitation to authentic selflessness. What is there to gain by inviting the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind to dine with us at a banquet? Although Jesus speaks to the Pharisee, he also speaks to everyone who would read and hear the Gospel. It would be unusual for a lunch or dinner to be held for the sake of inviting the marginalized, but the meaning is both literal and and figurative. It would be equally unusual to go through an entire day without encountering someone who is brought low or incapacitated in some way. Those people, the everyday encounters, are the ones to whom Jesus says give without expecting repayment.

Today, God, I will feel the pressure to pursue my own interests and complete all I hope to complete in a neat package. It won’t be that easy. There will be interruptions, requests, coworkers and family members who will call me away from that aim. The words of Saint Paul from today’s first reading are a strong antidote to any delusions I might have about carving out a path of selfishness: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others.” God, help me welcome rather than shun the interruptions of others. Instead, let me find God in those moments, getting my attention. As the psalmist says, “In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.”

God, I am anxious about the day and its tasks. Be my strength. I will forget you during the day and this moment with you will fade. Be present as you are present always in the Blessed Sacrament. How can I repay you, Lord, for quieting my soul?

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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