When you hold a lunch or a dinner

3 NOVEMBER (Lk 14,12-14)

In the Old Testament, the privileged love of the Heavenly Father for the poor of the earth always appears. He wants the perfect law of communion, sharing and participation of all the goods of the earth to be lived. Not only when you are around his holy temple, when you offer the sacrifices of communion, but in every other moment in the life of his people. Communion with God must necessarily turn into communion with men. It is an everlasting statute. Real, spiritual communion of faith, morality, holiness and of the goods of this world.

Remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and carry out these statutes carefully. “You shall celebrate the feast of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and wine press. You shall make merry at your feast, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and also the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community. For seven days you shall celebrate this pilgrim feast in honor of the Lord, your God, in the place which he chooses; since the Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your crops and in all your undertakings, you shall do nought but make merry. “Three times a year, then, every male among you shall appear before the Lord, your God, in the place which he chooses: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, and at the feast of Booths. No one shall appear before the Lord empty-handed, but each of you with as much as he can give, in proportion to the blessings which the Lord, your God, has bestowed on you. “You shall appoint judges and officials throughout your tribes to administer true justice for the people in all the communities which the Lord, your God, is giving you. You shall not distort justice; you must be impartial. You shall not take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes even of the wise and twists the words even of the just” (Dt 16,12-19).  

“You shall count off seven weeks, computing them from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. You shall then keep the feast of Weeks in honor of the Lord, your God, and the measure of your own freewill offering shall be in proportion to the blessing the Lord, your God, has bestowed on you. In the place which the Lord, your God, chooses as the dwelling place of his name, you shall make merry in his presence together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who belongs to your community, as well as the alien, the orphan and the widow among you. Remember that you too were once slaves in Egypt, and carry out these statutes carefully. “You shall celebrate the feast of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and wine press. You shall make merry at your feast, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and also the Levite, the alien, the orphan and the widow who belong to your community. For seven days you shall celebrate this pilgrim feast in honor of the Lord, your God, in the place which he chooses; since the Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your crops and in all your undertakings, you shall do nought but make merry (Dt 16,9-15).

Jesus does not abolish this law of his Father. He gives it its completion and perfection. The rich, those who possess, those who are wealthy do not need material, real and things communion. They already have everything. Offering them a lunch or dinner is a wasted thing. You give nourishment to one who is already full. The already satiated then, to be disobliged, in turn invites you that are also full. It is a foolish, sinful communion, because it produces neither material nor spiritual fruit. This law of sharing between satiated is abolished, repealed forever. It is the law of men, not the will of his Father. It is a thing of the earth not heaven.

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 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.”

Jesus wants to establish a true actual, substantial communion, between who is rich and who is poor. He wants this fellowship as a law of life, not of a few moments, special circumstances and extraordinary feasts. Every day we live and every day this most holy law of life must be applied. The poor man is from the life of the rich. Always. But the rich man also is from the life of the poor. The eternal life of the rich is from the life that he gives to the poor.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us live in the holy law.