“Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” Those are the words that I most often say at the end of Mass. And they’re the words that each one of us tries to live each day, guided by the Word of God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. But we know that our ways don’t always naturally follow God’s.
For example, today’s instruction by Jesus to invite the poor, crippled, lame, and the blind instead of friends, relatives, or wealthy neighbors may seem unrealistic. Some of us might find ourselves thinking what we’d say as kids, “Who do you think I am (St.) Mother Teresa?”
But as I reflected on Jesus’ radical desire for us to care for those in need, I thought about my maternal grandmother. Gramie Shay was one of eleven children, and back then, no one left her city of Fall River, MA. After getting married, her home became the center of Shay and Reynolds’s life. It was like a perpetual open house from breakfast to eleven at night and sometimes later. But beyond family, guests also included widows and widowers, singles, and the lonely, as well as priests and other friends and the pilgrims who would come to St. Anne’s Shrine for Novena’s and be house guests for the time.
There were even dogs who sought shelter in bad weather and whose owners didn’t take them in at night.
Now, I’m not saying that everyone can pull this off. But what I do believe is that when we are having gatherings, formal or informal, we can invite others who might not be on the A-list, the people often forgotten and most in need. We can do what my own mother has modeled for our family by thoughtfully including and making people feel welcome into our home that are going through difficult times and otherwise would be on their own.
My brothers and sisters, Jesus is also helping us to understand how God has compassion on all those, including us, who at times feel discouraged, are struggling financially or with health issues, and countless other ways. In a special way, Jesus welcomes us to the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the greatest banquet on earth; perhaps we can also invite others to join us too.
We can never fully repay Jesus for His redeeming our lives, but we can give glory to the Lord by imitating His love by inviting the poor, blind, or otherwise challenged into our lives as Jesus does for us, with the promise that our works of charity will be repaid when one day we go home to God, it’s then that we will be fully at peace, knowing that our lives have given glory to God.
May God bless you and your families on this holy day!
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