“[W]hen 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” (Lk 14:13-14).
The words of Jesus today give us the key to loving unconditionally. We are to resist the temptation of doing, so that we can receive thanks or praise. The only motive is to reach out to the needs of those in our midst for its own sake. We embrace our dignity as human beings when we recognize the inherent dignity of another and serve them without hesitation, without holding anything back.
This is the root of what we mean when we say that we are believers in the God of Jesus Christ. This God is a divine community of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father gives all that he is to the Son perfectly, infinitely, holding nothing back. The Son receives all that he has been given perfectly, infinitely and returns, in like fashion, what he has received to the Father. The infinite Love shared between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit.
Through the Son of God becoming incarnate, becoming one with us in our humanity and returning to the Father at his Ascension, we now participate in that same divine love given and received between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not give of our time, our talent, and our treasure, because we will be given in return – more time, more talent, more treasure. We give, we love, because we have already been loved into existence by a loving God.
The very fact that we exist, that we have life, is a gift. What it means to be human is to be able to look into the eye of every person we meet and see in them our brother and sister. With each smile, each embrace, each listening ear, and each act of walking with another, we reaffirm to each other that we exist, that we have dignity, having been created in the image and likeness of God who is Love.
Jesus, open our hearts and minds to the wonderful gift of participating in the love given and received between you and the Father. In this way, may we too experience the Holy Spirit, that we may have the courage to mirror your unconditional communion of love here on earth with those we meet today.
Photo: Jesus on the grounds of Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center
Link for today’s Mass readings:
Spiritual Stepping Stones 