Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
By Beth DeCristofaro
For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. (Romans 11:32)
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.” (Psalm 69:33-34)
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.” (Luke 14:13-14)
Piety
My God, in your great love, answer me. Help me to seek your love and mercy rather than earthly importance and rewards. Keep me from seeing only sin in others. Help me love others with the love you freely offer to me rather than with my own limited love. My God, help me to love freely, abundantly and with great joy. Amen.
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/110507.shtml
Yesterday we watched Jesus pause beneath a tree and request a sinner to invite him to his house. Jesus looked at Zacchaeus with mercy. It is how we would wish Jesus to look at us. Being sinners, we know we do not deserve it, but as God’s mercy is undeserved and given where God wills, we have every reason to hope and be joyful for it as Paul writes: For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. (Romans 11:32)
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Pharisee to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind (Luke 14:13) to banquets rather than friends or influential people. Jesus invites him and invites us to look at others not for what we can gain from them. He asks us not to look with the eyes of society and culture at those around us. Rather, he asks that we extend to them the mercy and love that is extended to us by God. When we see a sinner, look for the beloved son or daughter of God within.
Might the sinner be in need of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation? Yes! Might we be in need of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation? Yes! What would God do for us? Send us his Son to seek us out of the tree where we hide to peek at divinity? Seek us in our own home where we are comfortable in the little world of comfort and influence we have built around us? Seek us, perhaps, in the moment of sin when we are most vulnerable and where God stands at our side if we be but aware and open to God rather than temptation.
Paul said: Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. (Romans 11:30-31) Can we be aware of our own sin and thus be aware of how much God loves us? Can we see sin in another yet be aware of how much God loves her/him?
Action
Take time at the end of the day to put yourself in God’s presence and ask for mercy, ask for God’s love. Look at ways in which you did not recognize or offer God’s mercy to another. Be aware of when you have acted independently of God. Look over the day in a spirit of learning, openness and awareness. Pray with the psalmist: Lord, in your great love, answer me. Ask forgiveness for failure. Be grateful for the forgiveness and mercy which God bestows out of great love for you. Pray that you will offer it others.
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