REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR I 6TH NOVEMBER 2023
REFLECTION/HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF THE 31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR I 6TH NOVEMBER 2023 Romans 11:29-36; Ps.1319; Luke 14:12-14 Authentic Charity At face value, today’s gospel is a difficult one. Jesus is asking us not to invite those we are familiar with when we prepare a banquet but to invite the poor, the lame, the blind and so on. However, on closer look, we discover that Jesus was not primarily teaching on the class of people to be invited to a banquet. Such a teaching will ordinarily have no bearing for our salvation. Basically, Jesus was inviting us to embrace the proper way of doing charity. For charity to be charity, it must be done with all selflessness. When selfishness (in whatever colour it presents itself) accompanies our act of giving, it becomes investment, no longer charity. For every investment both capital and profit is expected. When we honestly access ourselves, we realize that more often than not, what we have done as charity were actually investments because we h...