“Go to the poor: you will find God.”

“My little ones, never forget that the poor are Our Lord; in caring for the poor say to yourself: This is for my Jesus—what a great grace!” – St Jeanne Jugan

(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 welfare system is not working. 

Thank God it's keeping people alive in the short term. However, it's not setting them free. It may even be enslaving and conditioning people in a generational cycle.

The “Progressive” idea of family isn't working. 

Thank God for marital faithfulness in a society of broken promises, broken families, and broken hearts. 

What if the nuclear family became an extended family — even a Christian community? What if welfare was not a government program? What if family hospitality took the place of welfare? What if Jesus intends today's Gospel reading to be taken literally? What if Jesus is right again about loving the poor, offering hospitality, being family, and living life?

Are you trying to share meals with "beggars and the crippled, the lame and the blind"? (Lk 14:13) Are you caring for the poor in a hands-on way? Are you caring for your brothers and sisters in Christ in a practical way?

If we lived in Christian community as described in Acts of the Apostles, maybe we would do the acts of the apostles in feeding and freeing the poor. 

Jesus is right.