Have you ever wondered where on your bucket list — in other words, before your time runs out on this earthly pilgrimage — where on your bucket list would inviting a poor person, or a cripple, or someone who is lame or blind, or an outcast, be? When that day would be, when you would invite such a person to dine with you, to have a meal with you?
Our Lord, in today’s Gospel, in speaking to the Pharisee and how we ought to extend mercy to others, says to him: “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbours, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. 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.”
My brothers and sisters, the Lord is asking us to be merciful for two reasons: in view of what is yet to come — eternity — and because if we are merciful to others, God will show us mercy on the day that we stand before Him, the day we stand before the tribunal of Christ, as Paul puts it.
And why are we to show mercy? Because God, in fact, has already shown us mercy.
Saint Paul, in today’s first reading from his Letter to the Romans, chapter 11, says to all of us: “Just as you once disobeyed God, but have now received mercy, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God delivered all to disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all.”
My brothers and sisters, are we grateful for the mercy God has shown us? When we go to confession, are we sincere in our purpose of amendment — that we will fix the things that need to be fixed, that we will try better in the things we know are important and necessary in order to live a good Christian life?
Are we determined to avoid sin at all costs? Or do we go haphazardly? Do we approach the sacrament with selfishness?
What do I mean by that? I mean, do we go to confession just so that we can feel better, or is it because we are truly sorry that we have offended the One who is our Father, who has shown us nothing but goodness, love, and mercy?
My brothers and sisters, if we appreciate the mercy that God has shown us, let us manifest our gratitude through acts of charity towards those who are less fortunate — to friends who have been shunned by our other friends, to the people that you work with who may be lost and need somebody to talk to.
Let us today ask the Lord for the grace to encounter Him within our struggling neighbour. And in inviting Him to the house of our hearts to dine with us, one day He will say to us: “I was hungry and you gave me food. I was a prisoner and you came to visit me. I was sick in hospital; you came to me.”
And when we ask, “When, Lord, did we ever do this for You?” He will say: “Whatever you did, whatever mercy you showed to the least of my brethren, you showed unto me. And so now, receive my mercy. Enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, my good and faithful servant.”
And may God bless you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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