Monday, October 31,
2016
From today’s Gospel (Monday of
the 31st week in Ordinary Time):
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. (Luke 14:13-14)
God’s economy is overwhelming in
our favor. The slightest good deed or work of charity is going to be richly
rewarded in the Kingdom to come, even, as the Lord says, giving a cup of cold
water to someone who is thirsty. (Matthew 10:42). And elsewhere it says that
almsgiving atones for sin. (Catechism of
the Catholic Church 1434;) These are
not grand heroic acts. They are simple and, hopefully, ordinary things that
occur in our lives, ordinary things which carry tremendous rewards with them.
God’s economy is also
overwhelmingly in favor of the poor and the needy. Why do I say this? Well, by encouraging
those who have to extend their charity and mercy and love to those who
do not have, God is, in His own way, seeking to provide for the needs of
the poorest of the poor and the neediest of the needy. He has constructed his
economy in such a way that everyone benefits in one way or another.
Keep that in mind when you find
yourself doing little things to help others. Take joy in your ability to give,
to help and to care for others. Pray for an increased sensitivity to the needs
of the poor—some of whom may very well be living near to you or even in your
own home and family.
My friends, we miss so many
opportunities to be charitable. I recall something Thomas Merton once said (and
I don’t remember where), that by entering the monastery he would encounter
100,000 ways to be charitable and if he were lucky, he might grab on to one or
two of them. How about us? Can we manage, with God’s grace, to grab onto an
opportunity that may come our way in the very near future?
God bless you.
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