November 5, 2018
Monday
31st Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Phil 2:1–4
Gospel: Luke 14:12-14
Jesus addressed the man who had invited him and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid. When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they can’t repay you; you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the upright.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A mother takes her child to a doctor. After the successful treatment, she shows the doctor a hand- made wallet. “There are some things we cannot pay”, she tells the doctor, “I hope you will accept this wallet that I made just for you”. “Madam, I did not practice medicine for sentimental reasons,” the doctor says angrily. “Pay me 2,000 dollars and keep that hand-made wallet for yourself”. She opens the wallet. It contains 5,000 dollars. She takes the 2,000 dollars and gives it to the doctor.
Perhaps the reason why God loves the poor is that poor people see beyond what can be calibrated with money. Luke is one Evangelist who gives us a better picture of Jesus’ preferential option for the poor. Jesus’ Beatitudes are pro-poor (Luke 6:20-24). The parable of the rich man having problems with the storage of his bountiful harvest (12:16-21) tells us of Jesus’ notion about riches. The story of the rich man and Lazarus (16:19-26) is a vivid illustration of what awaits the poor in the next life. Jesus approved Zacchaeus’ promise to give half of his belongings to the poor (19:8). The parable of the unscrupulous judge and the importunate widow (Luke 18:6) tells us of God’s predisposition towards the insistent requests of poor people. The story of the rich young man who went away sad because his possessions were many (Luke 18: 20-22) explains to us why it is hard for the rich to enter heaven
In today’s Gospel Jesus invited his listeners to focus not on the material returns of inviting guests but on the spiritual returns of inviting those who cannot repay in this world. It is human to treat people favorably in exchange for favors obtained. But Jesus wanted people to widen their horizons beyond material returns and look forward to heavenly rewards.
The mother who gave a hand-made wallet to the doctor saw in his services a value that cannot be equated with money. But the doctor’s heart was only trained to recognize money; he was not even aware of the spiritual dimension of his services. He demanded two thousand dollars and he got it. With that he was already repaid. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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