The gospel for Monday of the 31st week in ordinary time is taken from Luke 14. On a Sabbath, Jesus went to dine at the house 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 neighbor, 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. Jesus often uses a banquet or a dinner as an image of the kingdom of God.

And it’s beautiful because it means that we’re called together, to eat together, to be fed together. He focuses here on the one who is the host. And what he’s trying to remind us is that there is a way in which, when we are in charge of the way in which our life is going, when we make decisions, be careful not to make them solely out of the need that you have for something that comes back to you, that something is given back to you for everything that you give out to another one. It’s natural that we work that way, that we think that way. It’s human. But the kingdom of God goes beyond our humanity and leans heavily on the spirit of generosity.

It is in our hearts when they are filled with God’s presence. Satan. Satan. Satan. Sam Foreign Closing PRAYER Father, we ask you to give us a gift of generosity, of excitement, enthusiasm over the things that we’re called to do for others, and let us find the satisfaction in that work because of the work, not because of something later that we might get in return. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.