“Your
days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun.
If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.” ― Marcus
Aurelius: (was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 - Marcus Aurelius was the last of
the so-called Five Good Emperors.)
Gospel
Text: (LK 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.”
The Gospel today has Jesus instructing
that we should invite everyone to the table. Not just the wealthy or
“perfect,” but the poor and outcast, the undesirables. Like us opening
the door for people on All Hallows Eve, it doesn’t make a difference who they
are, what they’ve done, what they’re wearing, or where they come from. It
just doesn’t matter… we welcome them anyway, giving what we can, expecting
nothing in return.
To me, this Gospel is all about
welcoming the sinner. I’m a sinner, and wow do I long to be
invited. With tomorrow being All Saints Day, I’m being hit in the head
with the question, “Weren’t the Saints actually sinners first?”
Who do we welcome to the table?
Who welcomes us?
Who doesn’t?
“He said to the man who had invited
him, “Invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.”
Shouldn’t we do the same?
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