INVITE THE POOR, THE CRIPPLED, THE LAME, THE BLIND

Phil 2,1-4; Ps 130; Lk 14,12-14
5 NOVEMBER

Jesus always places man before a choice: consuming his life for an ephemeral glory and for vain, useless, often even harmful results, or for an eternal glory. This truth is understood if the man sees himself as a worker hired on a daily basis. When the worker sells his time and energy to the master, it is right that he is paid by the master. No master might pay a worker, if he has not worked for him, has not sold his time and energy to him for a day. This truth is an essential part of the Sermon on the Mount.

“(But) take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you (Cf. Mt 6,1-18).

Here is the principle of truth hidden in this teaching of Jesus: man has sold to God time, energy, mind, heart, soul, spirit, desire and will. From the moment of the sale, he is obliged only to work for the glory of his Lord, doing everything for him and in view of him. If instead man works for himself, to acquire an ephemeral and vain good, he might not be paid by his God. He did not work for him. Having worked for himself, it is he who must give himself his reward. But what reward might a man give himself? Only an ephemeral, fleeting reward. He is not eternity and never might he give himself an eternal reward. It is the failure of his life. This rule of the “sale of life” also applies to the personal goods. Selling himself to the Lord, his goods are also sold. If they belong to God, must they be used according to the will of God? What is the divine will on the goods? That they may be used at the service of the poor of the earth. If instead man uses them for his own benefit, never might God repay man for the goods of the earth and their use is totally vain. They are not transformed into eternal goods. Man will present himself naked and bare in eternity. God might not give him his divine goods, because man did not give him his ephemeral goods. Here is the true gain of man. He gives God the ephemeral in exchange for what is eternal.

Then 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 your relatives or your wealthy neighbours, 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.”

To live according to the commandment of Christ the Lord, it is necessary to form oneself in a true and perfect vision of faith. The ministers of the Word are the ones that must form in the right faith. For their teaching man can form himself a treasure in heaven. For the lack of formation and for their sin of omission, the man is condemned to lose both the goods on earth and in eternity. In fact, many are the ones who are losing all their belongings on earth, because they have not lived them according to God. Lost on earth they are also lost in heaven.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, fill us with all wisdom to live of most pure faith.