Accept Limitations, Poverty and Differences
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
“When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” Luke 14:13
There are many who do not know how to accept many realities of this world, even when they come across them on a daily basis. With human stubbornness capable of tripping a thousand times on the same stone and still not learn. They do not want to accept the realities that they do not like, be it a disease, a person with physical or psychological limitations, be it their own sin or that of others, their physical appearance etc; they fight
with reality and with God himself for having done things that way.
In the audacity of ignorance, he/she thinks he/she knows more than God, that he believes that he/she knows everything, because his/her world is reduced to the little that he/ she knows personally, without taking into consideration the abyss of realities that he/she ignores.
We must know that we are in gestation to be born to true life when we die. We must therefore accept this stage of our maturation, although we have to regret many imperfections in ourselves, in others, and in everything of this life. For this, let us not get tired of loving and doing good…
When you give a banquet, call the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and you will be happy because they cannot pay you, because you will be rewarded in the resurrection of the righteous.”Lk 14,13
If we believed that in order to live with someone we must agree on everything, see and think the same, we would not live with anyone, because we would feel cheated by everyone, because the person who sees and wants the same as me has not been born, nor will never be born. No one is perfect nor is to see things the way I do, or to please me. Who we must please is God and from Him we must all learn, each one from the different talents that he/she has received.
We must therefore accept that our neighbor, even close relatives, disappoint our expectation, see and think differently, think the opposite than us. Many differences are natural and legitimate in this world, for having received different talents from God and from life, or different education and training, or for having diverse tastes and preferences, and for so many ways of seeing things and opinions different. Nothing is wrong with that.
What we unite in is in the same revealed truths of faith, in Christian love, the same Holy Spirit that dwells in us, the same dignity and vocation of priests, kings and prophets, to live in holiness, communion and mission. But we do not know need to have the same opinion or have the same tastes to live together in peace, to respect and love each other, to help us grow in holiness and in the experience of our faith.
Although the differences mortify us; although we would like the other to see the same as us and would like the same, we have to respect that he/she has different talents, maybe he/she is a different member in the body of Christ, maybe he/she is in a different growth stage and you must be patient, because he/she does not bear the fruits that you would like. Keep loving him/her and helping him/her grow, try to always be uplifting for him/her to continue climbing steps in his/her own spiritual growth.
Readings for the Week
Monday: 1 Cor 2:1-5; Ps 119:97-102; Mk 6:17-29
Tuesday: 1 Cor 2:10b-16; Ps 145:8-14; Lk 4:31-37
Wednesday: 1 Cor 3:1-9; Ps 33:12-15, 20-21; Lk 4:38-44
Thursday: 1 Cor 3:18-23; Ps 24:1bc-4ab, 5-6; Lk 5:1-11
Friday: 1 Cor 4:1-5; Ps 37:3-6, 27-28, 39-40; Lk 5:33-39
Saturday: 1 Cor 4:6b-15; Ps 145:17-21; Lk 6:1-5
Sunday: Wis 9:13-18b; Ps 90:3-6, 12-17; Phlm 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25-33
Saints & Special Observances
Sunday: Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday: The Passion of St. John the Baptist
Thursday: World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
Friday: First Friday
Saturday: St. Gregory the Great; First Saturday