May the Lord give you peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 6th November 2023. We reflect on Romans 11:29-36; and the Gospel from Luke 14:12-14.
Are we taking God’s call and gifts for granted?
One day a man was crossing a bridge but was so scared. He turned to God for help asking: “Can I hold your hand so I may not have fear and fall?” God said in reply: “No, my child, I will hold your hand.” The man asked: “What’s the difference whether I hold, or you hold? God said: “If you hold my hand and something happens, you might let go off but if I hold your hand, no matter what happens, I will never let you go.”
God never takes back the call and gifts, yet we might lose it by the way we respond and not use it for the glory of God and for the welfare of the other.
We gain more blessings after our life here on earth for having been charitable to the needy and the vulnerable.
In the first reading, St. Paul points out that even though people of Israel were unfaithful, God was consistently faithful and generous. God’s love embraces justice; in this finest and subtle merging there is an ample room for God’s mercy. God does not ignore mercy to establish justice just because God is love. Probably, that is what make us taking God’s call and gifts for granted.
The Gospel teaches us that charity is not reciprocal, but it is a choice. Our Lord wants us to make a clear choice in sharing our resources with those who cannot repay us. Our display of charity must not attract reward, social recognition, and speculation and not even our personal admiration for being charitable to marginalised.
We may not have any special blessings for being charitable here on earth but surely after our life. So, let us be charitable today more than yesterday.
As God reaches out to help us in need however unfaithful we are, so may we be generous and reaching out to those who have been forgotten by a merciless, an indifferent, and the ever-busy-minting-money-society.
God wants us to reward us when God meets us in Heaven. Let us not be tired of loving the poor and being charitable to them.
Magnanimous and anonymous in giving are the vision and the spirit of charity that Jesus wishes us to practice as a follower.
“When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Lk.14:14).
Receiving rewards and blessings from the poor is so seldom; indeed, even after all that we have done to them either we will be blamed or questioned for being charitable or the recipients themselves would pour the cold water on our back.
May the Lord help us to be charitable and generous to those who cannot pay us back. May you have a good day and God bless you.