Reflections on Scripture | Monday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
Luke 14:12-14

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."

Reflection

Jesus often uses a banquet or a dinner as an image of the Kingdom of God, and it’s beautiful because it means that we are called together to eat together, to be fed together. He focuses here on the one who is the host.\

And what he's trying to remind us is that there is a way in which when we are in charge of the way in which our life is going, when we make decisions, be careful not to make them solely out of the need that you have for something that comes back to you, that something is given back to you for everything that you give out to another one. It's natural that we work that way, that we think that way, it's human. But the Kingdom of God goes beyond our humanity and leans heavily on a spirit of generosity that is in our hearts. When they are filled with God's presence.

Closing Prayer

Father, we ask you to give us a gift of generosity, of excitement, enthusiasm over the things that we're called to do for others, and let us find the satisfaction in that work because of the work, not because of something later that we might get in return. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross