Reflection for October 31 Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time: Luke 14:12-14

Gospel: Luke 14:12-14

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.

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

Have you tried giving to those who cannot give you back?  

There is always this feeling of unexplainable happiness when you give to those who cannot give you back. For example, when you give to a poor relative, a poor friend or an unknown poor just passing by you. There’s always that feeling of unfathomable happiness. 

From where does this feeling of happiness comes from? It comes from God who gives back on behalf of those who cannot repay your kindness. Such how good God is, He always sees to it that the good that you do is given back to you. And when God gives back He gives back generously. 

But many of us prefer to give to those who are capable of giving us back. Perhaps that’s human nature but what if we try giving to those who cannot repay our generosity? The moment we do it then we see how good God really is. 

The gospel for today invites us to reflect on the motives of our giving. Do we give because we expect something in return? Or we give because we find unfathomable joy in giving especially to those who cannot reciprocate our generosity.  

Every act of goodness that we do most especially to those who cannot give us back is generously rewarded by God in manifold way. – Marino J. Dasmarinas