DAILY READINGS & REFLECTION

Monday - St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop - Memorial (November 4)

"You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just"

GOSPEL

Luke 14:12-14

12 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."

The Gospel of the Lord
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REFLECTION

When you give a feast, invite instead the poor. Fortunate are you then, because they can't repay you; you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the upright

Today, the Lord teaches us the true meaning of Christian generosity: to learn how to devote ourselves to others. When you give a lunch or a dinner, don't invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid (Lk 14:12).

Christians move about in this world as any other person; but the fundamental purpose to deal with our neighbor cannot be either humans rewards or the vainglory; over everything else, we have to seek the Glory of God pretending no other recompense than Heaven. When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Fortunate are you then, because they can't repay you; you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the upright (Lk 42:13-14).

The Lord invites all of us to give ourselves unconditionally to all men, motivated only by our love to God and to our brothers in the Lord. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank have you? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again (Lk 6:34).

Things are like that because the Lord helps us to understand that, if we give ourselves unselfishly, without expecting anything in return, God will repay us with a greater reward and will confirm us as his favorite children. This is why Jesus tells us: But love you your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest (Lk 6:35).

Let us beg from the Mother of God enough generosity so that we can elude any temptation of selfishness, as his Son did. Selfish! You always looking out for yourself. You seem unable to feel the brotherhood of Christ. In others you don't see brothers; you see stepping-stones. (St. Josemaria Escriva).

-Fr. Austin Chukwuemeka IHEKWEME (Ikenanzizi, Nigeria)
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FIRST READING

Romans 11:29-36

29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. 33 O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! 34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM

PSALM 68(69):30-31, 33-34, 36

Response: Lord, in your great love, answer me.

But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

“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.”

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

For God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
They shall dwell in the land and own it,
and the descendants of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall inhabit it.

R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
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Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.