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Today, 21st of November, we celebrate
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also everyone for those of others.
R./ In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
R./ In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap,
so is my soul within me.
R./ In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O Israel, hope in the Lord,
both now and forever.
R./ In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
Jesus addressed the man who had invited him and said, "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. 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.
Many of us feel a certain resentment when we have helped someone, performed a service, or solved a problem. The fact is that although the person we have helped usually thanks us with words, we do not feel that we have received an “equivalent” reward.
We may think, and often do think, that the love we give is greater than the love we receive. And when, at certain times, those to whom we dedicate time, attention, help, or material goods “should” reciprocate, do not appear, do not call, do not accompany us… we feel disappointed. This is natural, because it is hard to swallow and we only accept it, with more or less expressed complaints, when the beneficiaries are very close relatives or good friends. For this reason, even if it is a little unconscious, it may seem more reasonable and advantageous to practice generosity by calculating the benefit: what the invitation can bring us to those from whom we will surely receive something similar to what we intend to give.
Today’s Gospel, like each of Jesus’ proposals, offers us a new way of overcoming this kind of disappointment, which is otherwise very human: we must first give to the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, that is, to all those who, even if they want to, cannot offer us a compensation commensurate with the gift. In the first reading, St. Paul exhorts us: “Do not shut yourselves up in your own interests, but consider the interests of others. Have among yourselves the mind of Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus gave us everything, fulfilling the will of the Father. He gave us too much, far beyond our capacity to respond: he gave himself to the point of death and death on the cross. Let us try to have the same feelings, asking the Holy Spirit to recreate in us a heart similar to that of Christ, to give ourselves without measure, without calculation and without expecting any response other than that which God has already anticipated by giving us his Son.
Virginia FernandezLord our God, our Father,
we come together here as a people
to share in the feast of Jesus, our Savior.
Let this celebration be the sign of the feast without end
which you have prepared for us.
Make us rejoice with you
and welcome all with open arms,
people from everywhere, all nations,
the poor and the rich, the weak and the strong.
May all accept your invitation,
that we may rejoice with all
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
First Reading Introduction
As there were divisions also in Philippi, Paul asked his Christians to work toward unity, a unity based on unselfishness, humility, and concern for the good of others.
Gospel Introduction
We are inclined to love and invite those who love and invite us. Is this genuine love according to God’s standards? True love is gratuitous and opens itself to the poor and to outcasts. This is beautiful to say but hard to do. What is our practice?
– That those we encounter at the crossroads of life, too, may hear and accept the invitation to the table of the Lord, we pray:
– That the Lord who destroys death may give consolation and strength to all who mourn the death of a loved one, we pray:
– That also the communities without priests, isolated as they often are, may receive the Lord as their food, we pray:
Lord God,
we are preparing your table.
Like your Son,
may we open life’s happiness and share it
first of all with the most deprived.
Make us set your and our table
for those who have no access
to most of life’s goods and resources.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Lord, our hospitable God,
we have shared the table of Jesus your Son.
Let this mean for us that we have also to share our table
with the humble and the dispossessed,
even people who are difficult and not very lovable.
Inspire us to help them back on their feet
and to restore to them that which no one can dispense with:
self-esteem, self-confidence
and the indestructible courage
to be human persons.
Grant us this through Christ our Lord.
An impossible task? Something which only the naïve would try? Jesus has asked us today to care about the unlovable – or so we think – for no one is unlovable to God. Jesus cared and loved outcasts and sinners. Dare we follow him? May almighty God give you wisdom and courage and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
