Reading
Luke 14:12-14
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Comment
Reversing the common custom, Jesus exhorts to invite the unhappy and the poor as guests, who will never be able to reciprocate: it is only in this way that we will receive the most important reward, the divine one, in the final resurrection.
The disciple of Jesus must wait to be exalted, but the expectation must be animated by a generous and charitable spirit. Jesus asks to go beyond family ties, friendship, and interest (the "rich neighbors"; v. 12), to reach "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind", those who lack the most elementary things: a minimum of wealth for living with dignity; someone who supports them in their uncertain pace; eyes capable of offering guidance. These are categories that encompass different types of material and spiritual poverty.
Jesus associates this behavior with a real and proper beatitude ("you will be blessed"; v. 14). Only the logic of disinterested love makes it possible to leave a circle of belonging that risks being exclusionary ("your"... friends... brothers... relatives; v. 12), even "suffocating". The encounter with the "other", in the joy of sharing, leads us out of self-referential solitude, allowing us to anticipate the fruits of the resurrection right from now.
Prayer
Maintain in us, o Lord, a generous soul; so that we can recognize you in every needy one, to be filled with your grace and your heavenly blessing. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
