Repay

Today’s Gospel Text:    He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just." Luke 14:12-14

Reflection: Our monetary world talks in terms of repayment. You pay and in return are repaid.

So also many actions of life including the whole justice system are based on similar principles.

There is a certain kind of logic about this system which cannot be ruled out, some even look at it as scientific and it maybe so.

Jesus is giving us a new measure and new system that will break every kind of logic and the very laws of science. It works on charity that comes from an authoritative source, which is Jesus.

It is a charity that was first practiced by him before he taught it to others. It is a charity that defies every law and ethics practiced by humans.

How can anyone so easily practice this kind of charity without expecting anything in return? Even though we may call ourselves Christian we practice what is contrary to our Christian calling to be generous beyond a certain measure; a measure which beats every human logic.

He who taught it also practiced it to the utmost when he gave himself for us sinful men in unconditional love.

When Christ invites us he invites us to practice charity in our invitation to the unfortunate and less privileged in the banquets we organize but when he practiced it he practiced it in a much more difficult manner. He offered his very self for sinful and ungrateful men who in no way can ever repay him.

No one can repay Christ for what he has done for us by his offering on the cross for our salvation.

The only repayment we can do, and which is no repayment, is a heart filled with love and lips overflowing with gratitude to God for what he has accomplished in Christ Jesus.  Yet these are mere words from our lips acceptable to God when done with a sincere heart.

Prayer:  Lord may I learn from your great sacrifice and seek to be generous with what you have given me.

  

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