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Gospel Reading for November 4, 2024 – Luke 14: 12-14
TRULY SHAMEFUL
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited 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 neighbors, 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.”
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Jesus was teaching the Pharisee the TRUE MEANING of CHARITY. Simply put, CHARITY is giving to those in need without expecting anything in return. For us Christians, it is giving out of love for God, who himself is so charitable to us even knowing we cannot return what he has given us.
In this day and age, it has become a common practice to have photo-ops or photo-opps of giving donations to the poor or giving help to those in need, when someone needs to have good publicity. It is even used for damage control in order to restore an image that has gone bad in public. How TRULY SHAMEFUL it is to give a bad meaning to CHARITY. How TRULY SHAMEFUL it is to pretend to be charitable, making the poor believe how good we are, when in fact we will really be the ones to gain most from it.
Let us reflect on this Jesuit song based on the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, PANALANGIN SA PAGIGING BUKAS-PALAD –
Panginoon, turuan mo akong
maging bukas-palad.
Turuan mo akong maglingkod sa Iyo;
Na magbigay nang ayon sa nararapat
na walang hinihintay mula sa `yo.
Na makibakang di inaalintana,
mga hirap na dinaranas;
Sa tuwina’y magsumikap na hindi
humahanap ng kapalit na kaginhawaan;
At di naghihintay kundi ang aking mabatid
na ang loob Mo’y siyang sinusundan.
