DAILY GOSPEL Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. John 6:68 Tuesday, 04 November 2014 Tuesday of the Thirty-first week in Ordinary Time Saint(s) of the day : St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan († 1584) - Memorial, St. Felix of Valois, Hermit and co-founder of the Trinitarians (1127-1212) Blessed Teresa of Calcutta : Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor Letter to the Philippians 2:5-11. Brothers and sisters: Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 14:15-24. One of those at table with Jesus said to him, Blessed is the one who will dine in the kingdom of God. He replied to him, A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, Come, everything is now ready. But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The first said to him, I have purchased a field and must go to examine it; I ask you, consider me excused. And another said, I have purchased five yoke of oxen and am on my way to evaluate them; I ask you, consider me excused. And another said, I have just married a woman, and therefore I cannot come. The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame. The servant reported, Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room. The master then ordered the servant, Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner. Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity No Greater Love, p. 93 Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor Poverty doesnt only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity. We need to love and to be somebody for someone else. This is where we make our mistake and shove people aside. Not only have we denied the poor a piece of bread, but by thinking that they have no worth and leaving them abandoned in the streets, we have denied them the human dignity that is rightfully theirs as children of God. The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love, hungry to be wanted, to be loved. Theyre hungry to feel the presence of Christ. In many countries, people have everything except that presence, that understanding. In every country there are poor. On certain continents poverty is more spiritual than material, poverty that consists of loneliness, discouragement and the lack of meaning in life. I have also seen in Europe and America very poor people sleeping on newspapers or rags in the streets. There are those kind of poor in London, Madrid, and Rome. It is too easy simply to talk or concern ourselves with the poor who are far away. It is much harder and, perhaps, more challenging to turn our attention and concern toward the poor who live right next door to us. When I pick up a hungry person from the streets, I give him rice and bread, and I have satisfied that hunger. But a person who is shut out, feels unwanted by society, unloved and terrified — how much more difficult is it to remove that hunger? You in the West have the spiritually poorest of the poor much more than you have the physically poor. Often among the rich are very spiritually poor people. I find it is easy to give a plate of rice to a hungry person, to furnish a bed to a person who has no bed, but to console or to remove the bitterness, anger and loneliness that comes from being spiritually deprived, that takes a long time.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 07:14:47 +0000
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