HAPAGASA PICTURE

                                                      













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 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."

Commentary of the day :

Saint Gregory Nazianzen (330-390), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
On love of the poor, 4-6; PG 35, 863

“You taught your people by these deeds that those who are just must be kind” (Wis 12:19)

The first and the greatest of the commandments, that on which the Law and the prophets are based (Mt 22,40), is love, which it seems to me brings its greatest proof in love of the poor, in tenderness and compassion for one’s neighbor. Nothing gives as much honor to God as mercy, for nothing is more like him. “Mercy and truth go before him,” (Ps 88[89],15) and he prefers mercy to judgment (Hos 6,6). Nothing attracts the kindness of the Friend of humankind as much as kindness towards humankind (Wis 1:6); his reward is just, he weighs and measures mercy.

We must open our hearts to all who are poor and unhappy, whatever their suffering might be. That is the meaning of the commandment which requires us to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Rom 12,15) Since we are also human, is it not right and proper for us to be kind towards those who are like us?