The Gospel for The memorial of St. Charles Barromeo Bishop is taken from Luke 14:12 to the 14th verse. 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.

There’s a comparison here between something that we all know and have experienced, people taking care of each other, doing nice things for each other, and always receiving nice things back. And we feel that that’s a really good thing and it is not necessarily a bad thing. But what about those people who are the outcasts, those that we don’t really naturally drawn to? What’s our responsibility there? Should we be offering things to them? And the kingdom of God is made up of not just a meal image, but a banquet image.

Everyone is welcome, everyone is fed, everyone is given something of value without the person who gives doing it only because of what they get, but doing it because it’s the right thing to do. Please ponder these images and then I will close with a prayer. Foreign Closing Prayer Father, we all have people in our lives that are easy to be with. And there are those in our life that are difficult. And we have to be very generous with those people, especially if we’re going to be living out the kingdom of God, to care not just for those who care for us, but to care for those who need care. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.